Match Centre: South Africa 26-10 New Zealand

South Africa 26-10 New Zealand, Mbombela Stadium

South Africa have kick-started the Rugby Championship campaign with a 26-10 win over New Zealand played at Mbombela Stadium on Saturday.

The two teams will meet again on 16th August at Emirates Airline Park for the second round.

The result will add more pressure to head coach Ian Foster and skipper Sam Cane, who were under critcism following the All Blacks' home series defeat against Ireland.

South Africa exerted early pressure on New Zealand's defence and Makazole Mapimpi looked threatening but was stopped by a potential try-saving tackle from Jordie Barrett in the 5th minute. Nevertheless, the visitors found their way as a high ball from Handre Pollard was collected by Lukhanyo Am, who offloaded to Kurt-Lee Arendse for the opening try.

Pollard's conversion took South Africa to an early 7-0 lead and it became 10-0 at the start of the second half after Pollard slammed a penalty kick following an infringement from Cane.

The first points from New Zealand came in the 34th minute as Damien de Allende infringed and Barrett slotted a three-pointer to reduce the gap down to seven points at the end of the opening half.

Replacement Tyrel Lomax conceded a penalty at the scrum early in the second half and Pollard made no mistake with the three-pointer making it 13-3 and the All Blacks continued to infringe as the South African fly-half slotted a drop goal to make it 16-3 by the end of the third quarter.

South Africa continued to pile on the pressure and once again capitalised on mistakes from Foster's men as Barrett got pinged for holding on and Pollard once again was spot on with his penalty kick to make it 19-3 with nine minutes left in the game.

New Zealand were handed a lifeline as South Africa's try-scorer Arendse was sent-off for a dangerous hit on Beauden Barrett in the 75th minute and with the numerical advantage on their side Shannon Frizell dotted down to bring it down to nine points. Nevertheless, South Africa held their nerve in the closing stage and Willie le Roux capitalised on a poor offload from Cane to score their second try in the final minute to ensure South Africa ended their 8-year losing streak against New Zealand at home.

Team line up:

South Africa XV: 15 Damian Willemse, 14 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 13 Lukhanyo Am, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Faf de Klerk, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (c), 5 Lood de Jager, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Trevor Nyakane

Reserves: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Steven Kitshoff, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 Salmaan Moerat, 20 Franco Mostert, 21 Kwagga Smith, 22 Jaden Hendrikse, 23 Willie le Roux

New Zealand XV: 15 Jordie Barrett, 14 Will Jordan, 13 Rieko Ioane, 12 David Havili, 11 Caleb Clarke, 10 Beauden Barrett, 9 Aaron Smith, 8 Ardie Savea, 7 Sam Cane (c), 6 Akira Ioane, 5 Scott Barrett, 4 Sam Whitelock, 3 Angus Ta’avao, 2 Samisoni Taukei’aho, 1 George Bower

Reserves: 16 Dane Coles, 17 Ethan de Groot, 18 Tyrel Lomax, 19 Tupou Vaa’i, 20 Shannon Frizell, 21 Finlay Christie, 22 Richie Mo’unga, 23 Quinn Tupaea