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\n More than 68,000 fans showed up in Baltimore for South Africa vs. New Zealand. (Caean Couto \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
World Rugby, the governing body of rugby union, wants to grow the sport in the United States. The 2031 men\u2019s World Cup and 2033 women\u2019s tournament are both set to take place in the U.S., and there is talk of North America also hosting a future Six Nations game.<\/p>\n
The action came thick and fast Saturday. The Springboks, who led the series 2-1 after claiming tests in Cape Town and Johannesburg following New Zealand\u2019s opening win at Ellis Park, put the first points on the board.<\/p>\n
That lead came via a penalty from fly-half Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, who slotted after getting tackled high after three minutes.<\/p>\n
But the All Blacks replied with waves of attacking that eventually saw Taylor run an intelligent angle that allowed him to burst over the line for the game\u2019s first try, smartly converted by Damian McKenzie.<\/p>\n
Whatever uplift they took from breaching one of world rugby\u2019s most formidable blitz defences did not last long. The Springboks\u2019 ensuing power play, with almost every ball carrier gaining meters upfield, saw them rumble over at the other end. Centre Damian de Allende got the ball down, but it was a try dug out by his pugnacious forwards.<\/p>\n
An 8-minute delay followed after the match officials\u2019 communications system went down, but South Africa picked up where it left off once play resumed. Another fearsome maul saw impressive scrum-half Morne van den Berg dash over the line with his side holding a penalty advantage for an All Blacks line-out misdemeanor. Feinberg-Mngomezulu converted again to give South Africa a 10-point lead.<\/p>\n
Casual fans might have thought the Springboks\u2019 scoreboard dominance meant the All Blacks were playing poorly. They were not. Coach Dave Rennie\u2019s men were excellent with ball in hand, and worked all manner of openings, but South Africa\u2019s gold-standard defense stifled most of New Zealand\u2019s best efforts.<\/p>\n
Not all of them, though. As the game\u2019s pulsating intensity grew, the All Blacks clawed back, with Will Jordan topping off a wonderful move to cut South Africa\u2019s lead to 17-14 at halftime.<\/p>\n
Erasmus flexed his squad\u2019s depth with a clutch of replacements soon after halftime, and the Springboks quickly rebuilt a commanding lead with two quick-fire tries. First, Malcolm Marx finished a typical forward power play, and then Pieter-Steph du Toit went over.<\/p>\n
New Zealand never found a way back. Tupou Vaa\u2019i conceded a soft penalty that deflated his side\u2019s pressure, and then Kurt-Lee Arendse and Cameron Hanekom scored tries that finished off a hard-fought victory.<\/p>\n
Whenever the determined All Blacks upped their level, Erasmus\u2019 side responded in kind.<\/p>\n
But veteran replacement Beauden Barrett grabbed a consolation try for New Zealand just before the final hooter.<\/p>\n
Addressing the South African supporters postgame, Springboks captain Siya Kolisi told Sky Sports: \u201cIt was a special week to see you guys come out and support us in numbers. We are so grateful.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo the New Zealand supporters, too \u2014 thank you for coming to our beautiful country and embracing our culture,\u201d Kolisi added, referring to the first three matches of the series played in South Africa. \u201cYes, we go hard at each other on the field, but the respect we have for each other is high.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got Rassie. When he speaks to us, he reminds us of where we come from, the country we come from. We do it for the players who are injured or not playing or who couldn\u2019t make the tour. We do it for the people of South Africa as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A North American rugby record 68,173 watched South Africa produce a blistering performance of power and precision to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,102597,111,43,139,69,1466],"class_list":["post-598679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-australia","tag-global-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}