Mandela Cup for Boks, Tri-Nations Title for Blacks
A try from South African fullback Werner Greeff on the stroke of full-time, a score he then converted, gave the Springboks a 33-31 victory over Australia in the final game of the 2002 Tri-Nations.
Over 63,000 turned up to Ellis Park in Johannesburg to see the Springboks claim the Mandela Cup with a last gasp (33-31) victory over the Wallabies. It was South Africas’ first win of the 2002 Tri-Nations competition but it was victory that meant the All Blacks were crowned as the Tri-Nations champions for the fourth time in their history. South Africa led 14-9 at half-time but a try from Brendan Cannon, three minutes from full-time edged Australia into what looked like a winning lead (31-26) until that late try and conversion from Greeff.
South Africa. Werner Greeff; Breyton Paulse, Marius Joubert, De Wet Barry, Dean Hall (Stefan Terblanchi 78); Brent Russell, Neil de Kock (Johannes Conradie 62), Lawrence Sephaka, James Dalton (Ollie le Roux 65), Willie Meyer (Faan Rautenbach 51); Jannes Labuschagne, AJ Venter; Corni Krige (captain, Hendro Scholtz 50), Joe van Niekerk, Bob Skinstad.
Yellow card: De Wet Barry (51-61); Red card: Marius Joubert (70).
Australia: Chris Latham (Mat Rogers 58); Ben Tune (Mat Rogers 50-58), Matthew Burke, Daniel Herbert, Stirling Mortlock; Stephen Larkham, George Gregan (captain); Bill Young, Jeremy Paul, Ben Darwin (Rod Moore 70), 2 (Brendan Cannon 59); Nathan Sharpe, Justin Harrison (Matt Cockbain 50); Owen Finegan, George Smith (David Lyons 23-28),
8 Toutai Kefu.
Referee: Paddy O’Brien (New Zealand).
Touch judges: Chris White (England), Alain Roland (Ireland)
TMO: Jim Fleming (Scotland)