The Rugby Championship Review Round 6 - The Best All Blacks Performance Ever?

The final round of the 2013 Rugby Championship produced a superb advert for the game of rugby with New Zealand beating South Africa 38-27 in Johannesburg.

Later in the day, Australia smashed Argentina 54-17 to avoid the wooden spoon but the attention was mainly on the epic encounter at Ellis Park which saw New Zealand retain the title.

Was it the best New Zealand performance of all time? Who knows, but to produce it in front of 62,000 hostile fans and with the title at stake, it has to be among their greatest efforts.

"The All Blacks 38-27 win will be up there with the great semi final win over Australia at the Rugby World Cup 2011, the 2005 second test against the British and Irish Lions and a couple of 50 point hidings the All Blacks gave the Springboks and Wallabies in 2003," says Talking Rugby Union's Southern Hemisphere rugby correspondent Scott Donaldson. 

"The All Blacks vs Wallabies in 2000? The 1987 and 1995 Rugby World Cup campaigns also had some great performances by the All Blacks. The 1996 win by the All Blacks over the Wallabies 43-6 must up there."

The Springboks can take plenty of encouragement from this game. They scored four tries (although the All Blacks managed five), Jean de Villiers put in an inspirational performance as captain, and they still managed to compete despite losing Bryan Habana to injury and the decision to substitute the du Plessis brothers.

Rarely, the All Blacks were competitive at the breakdown, lineouts and scrums - areas where the Springboks are usually dominant.

They too had to deal with adversity. Both Tim Franks and Liam Messam spent time in the sin-bin yet they were good enough to score points when down to 14 men.

The pace of the game was so quick that both sets of players - and referee Nigel Owens - were out on their feet. The Springboks couldn't chase the game in the final 20 minutes and they needed the spark that their opponents had throughout.

Kieran Reed scored a try, made Ben Smith's opener and made some fine runs during the game and was named as the man of the match.

"Apart from Franks, you couldn't fault any All Black performances," adds Donaldson. "How does Richie McCaw come back from injury and play 80 minutes in such a big game?

"What made this game special was the way the team in the lead kept changing and this made it exciting.  The massive crowd and playing at this top level inspired both teams to play a great game."

A few other points. Owens was excellent, explaining his decisions and although New Zealand hadn't filled out their team sheet properly, common sense prevailed and the game went on. With all of the stoppages and referrals to the TMO, the game went on for about two hours.

"I didn't mind given the importance of the match," says Donaldson. "The pass from Eben Etzebeth to Bryan Habana for his try was dubious but the relative velocity argument may prevail.

"I have respect for Springboks captain Jean de Villiers. His post match concession speech was very humble and the way he communicated with the referee and dealt with the team sheet situation showed great sportsmanship."

On to the battle for the wooden spoon, or more accurately, the battle to avoid it.

The Wallabies handed Argentina a 54-17 thrashing - the first time they have scored more than four tries in a game since the 2011 World Cup.

Did the Australians show huge improvement or did the Pumas just not show up? There were some fine long range tries from the visitors and they were competitive up front, Israel Folau scoring a hat-trick.

The outside backs were in the points which bears testament to the dry conditions and the quality of the attack in round six.

South Africa 27 - 38 New Zealand (15-21 at half-time)
Tries: de Villiers, Habana 2, le Roux	Tries: Barrett, Messam 2, Read, BR Smith
Cons: Steyn 2	Cons: Barrett 2, Cruden 3
Pens: Steyn	Pens: Barrett
Argentina 17 - 54 Australia (10-25 at half-time)
Tries: Bosch, Landajo	Tries: Ashley-Cooper, Folau 3, Foley, Robinson, Tomane
Cons: Sanchez 2	Cons: Cooper, Foley 2, Leali'ifano 2
Pens: Sanchez	Pens: Cooper, Leali'ifano 2