The Tri-Nations opened at Eden Park in Auckland with a magnificent win for New Zealand in a great display of intense, creative rugby. The Springboks, who beat the All Blacks three times last year, were not in the game.

Result

New Zealand vs South Africa, 32-12

Sanctions

Sanctionary Cards

Bakkies Botha (South Africa was the only recipient this week - for a deliberate infringement at a tackle near his line.

Cited and suspended

Bakkies Botha (South Africa) was cited for a headbutt in Jimmy Cowan (New Zealand), found guilty and suspended for nine weeks, i.e. the rest of the Tri-Nations.

Penalties conceded

In this section we record the times a team was penalised.

New Zealand vs South Africa

Total number of penalties: 17

New Zealand: 12
South Africa: 5

The reasons for the penalties were as follows:

* = points conceded

New Zealand:
Tackle/ruck/maul: 6 (Thorn, Mealamu, Jane, Kaino*, Donnelly, Ben Franks)
Offside: 4 (McCaw*, Cowan, Donnelly*, Ben Franks*)
Discipline: 2 (Read - air tackle; Muliaina - kicking ball away in touch)

South Africa:
Tackle/ruck/maul: 3 (Matfield, Bakkies Botha*, Januarie)
Scrum: 2 (Du Plessis*, BJ Botha)

New Zealand missed a penalty kick at goal.

Tackles/Penalties

This gives the number of penalties at ruck/tackle as a fraction of the total number of penalties: 9/17 = 53%

Getting possession - line-outs, scrums, free-kicks, drop-outs

In this section the figures represent the number of times you get to play with the ball.

New Zealand:
Line-outs: 7 (3 quick)
Scrums: 8 (6 resets, 4 collapses, 2 penalties)
Free-kicks: 0
Drop-outs: 2

South Africa:
Line-outs: 11 (2 lost)
Scrums: 8 (2 resets, 1 collapse)
Free-kicks: 0
Drop-outs: 2

Stoppages (total of line-outs, scrums with resets, free kicks, penalties, drop-outs): 63

Scoring

Tries

This is the number of tries each team scored.

New Zealand: 4 (Conrad Smith, Nonu, Read, Woodcock)
South Africa: 0

Tries/penalties scored

This gives the ratio of tries scored to penalties scored by each team:

New Zealand: 4/0
South Africa: 0/4

The ratio of tries scored to penalties goaled is 4/10