With the Springboks and All Blacks champing at the bit for the start of the 2022 Rugby Championship, here’s a look back to 1999 when an opportunistic Breyton Paulse try helped South Africa claim World Cup bronze in Cardiff.  

In a repeat of the epic 1995 final at Ellis Park, South Africa and New Zealand met again in the 1999 World Cup, only this time after the disappointment of crashing out of the semi-finals.

It was the Boks who seemed to want third place more, with Paulse brilliantly dotting down in the first half for the only try of the match, while Percy Montgomery scored a long-range drop goal early on – one of two for the fullback on the night – which bounced over off the crossbar. 

Andrew Mehrtens’ boot kept the Kiwis within touching distance throughout, but Henry Honiball was just as deadly from the kicking tee and, in the end, the Boks triumphed to make it two wins in as many World Cup matches against the All Blacks.

Springboks – 15 Percy Montgomery, 14 Breyton Paulse, 13 Robbie Fleck, 12 Pieter Muller, 11 Stefan Terblanche, 10 Henry Honiball, 9 Joost van der Westhuizen (c), 8 Andre Vos, 7 Andre Venter, 6 Rassie Erasmus, 5 Mark Andrews, 4 Krynauw Otto, 3 Cobus Visagie, 2 Naka Drotske, 1 Os du Randt.
Subs: 16 Werner Swanepoel, 17 Ruben Kruger, 18 Albert van den Berg, 19 Ollie le Roux, 20 Chris Rossouw, 21 Wayne Julies, 22 Jannie de Beer.

All Blacks – 15 Jeff Wilson, 14 Tana Umaga, 13 Christian Cullen, 12 Alama Ieremia, 11 Jonah Lomu, 10 Andrew Mehrtens, 9 Justin Marshall, 8 Taine Randell (c), 7 Josh Kronfeld, 6 Reuben Thorne, 5 Royce Willis, 4 Norm Maxwell, 3 Kees Meeuws, 2 Mark Hammett, 1 Craig Dowd.
Subs: 16 Pita Alatini, 17 Dylan Mika, 18 Carl Hoeft, 19 Anton Oliver, 20 Tony Brown, 21 Rhys Duggan, 22 Ian Jones.

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Photo: Odd Andersen/Getty Images