South Africa’s national Rugby side, the Springboks were crowned the Freedom Cup Champions following their victory over New Zealand’s All Blacks on Saturday evening in Cape Town.
This was the Boks’ second consecutive time in the 2024 Castle Lager Rugby Championship, the two rivals tussled it out last Saturday at the Emirates Airline Park Stadium, Infront of a full house of cheers of the sold out stadium.
The DHL Stadium in Cape Town was also filled with a cheerful crowd, as the Boks’ recorded a fourth win in a row over the Kiwis, the first time they achieved this in the professional era, and as a result, they won back the Freedom Cup for the first time since 2009.
Speaking after the match, Boks’ coach, Rassie Erasmus, highlighted the respect the team has for the All Blacks.
“It’s important to understand what winning four consecutive games against them means, but they’ve beaten us many times in a row too and achieved so much, so it’s not something to brag about, but it feels good.
“For us we spoke a lot about the Freedom Cup this week, and it means a lot for South Africa with where we are now. We wanted to win this badly for South Africa. This was also good for our hopes of winning the Castle Lager Rugby Championship, but we still have some work to do in that regard.”
Scorers:
Springboks 18 (3) – Tries: Siya Kolisi, Malcolm Marx. Conversion: Handre Pollard. Penalty goals: Pollard, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu.
New Zealand 12 (9) – Penalty goals: Damian McKenzie (4).
All images courtesy of; www.sarugby.co.za
