South Africa lost the Nelson Mandela Challenge Plate to Australia yesterday morning when the Wallabies beat them 41-39 at Bloemfontein. The Wallabies scored their points from tries by Kurtley Beale, James O'Connor, Stephen Moore, Rocky Elsom, and Drew Mitchell; in addition, Matt Giteau kicked four conversions and one penalty, James O'Connor kicked a conversion, and Kurtley Beale kicked a penalty. The Springboks scored theirs from tries by Jaque Fourie, Gurthro Steenkamp, and Jean de Villiers, but there's also the contribution of Morne Steyn, who added three conversions and six penalties to the not-enough haul. Saia Fainga'a was sin-binned in the 69th minute for his part in a lifting tackle.
Although three items of their rather impressive collection of silverware have fallen into foreign hands, the Rugby World Cup isn't on the line until next year and the Boks have another reason to celebrate because Bakkies Botha, who is possibly rugby's answer to Zinedine Zidane, will be off suspension next week.
Also up for review tonight are the last two games of the ITM Cup: although 27 points wasn't enough for North Harbour, it was enough for Auckland to take out Taranaki 27-13. Auckland's tries were scored by Atieli Pakalani and Winston Stanley; Matt Berquist added 5 penalties and a conversion. Taranaki were unlucky as they could only get a try by Samuela Vunisa and two penalties and a conversion by Willie Ripia, and they couldn't even take advantage of a ten-minute power play that started in the 30th minute when Peter Saili was yellow-carded for a high tackle.
Otago posted their first win when Hawke's Bay was pipped at the post with a score of 17-16. Otago's points came from tries by Alando Soakai and Kees Meeuws, and Glenn Dickson added a penalty and two conversions. Hawke's Bay's points came from a try by Hika Elliot, two penalties and a conversion by Daniel Kirkpatrick, and a penalty by Mark Jackman.
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