Carter's record haul helps batter the Boks

New Zealand 40 South Africa 7: Fly-half passes Wilkinson as All Blacks stroll past weakened South Africa

(getty images)

Dan Carter reclaimed the international points-scoring record from England's Jonny Wilkinson as New Zealand thrashed South Africa. Carter came into the match, the All Blacks' first of this season's Tri-Nations, with 1,194 Test points, behind Wilkinson on 1,195. He took the record with his first penalty, after only two minutes.

Carter ended the match with 1,204 points, nine ahead of Wilkinson, with whom he will battle for the record at the World Cup in September. The New Zealand and England fly-halves have exchanged the record in recent seasons: Carter had it at the end of the tour to Britain last November before Wilkinson reclaimed it in the Six Nations.

Carter's kicking was actually below par in windy conditions yesterday – he was successful with four of eight kicks – but he was a perpetual attacking threat, tearing holes in the defence of a depleted and generally inept Springbok team. The All Black winger Cory Jane made a brilliant Test comeback, pressing his case for World Cup selection by scoring two tries.

Jane was left out of New Zealand's initial Tri-Nations squad after a poor Super 15, and he missed the first Test of the year, against Fiji last week, with a compound dislocation of a finger. But after being named yesterday to play his 23rd Test and his first since October 2010, he nudged his way back into World Cup contention. He scored a sensational 33rd-minute try to help the All Blacks to an 18-7 lead by half-time, and scored another five minutes into the second half to secure the four-try bonus point. New Zealand went on to secure their largest winning margin against the Springboks at home.

"I think the boys will be pretty happy," said the All Black captain, Richie McCaw. "We obviously wanted to take a step up from last week and we knew we had to against the Boks. I think the physicality went up a notch. I think we played prettywell in patches.

"There's still a bit to work on but the intensity was there and there were a lot of good signs of what we worked on during the week."

New Zealand's other winger, Zac Guildford, also scored two tries. He scored his first in Tests in the 15th minute, two minutes after a Crusaders team-mate, the prop Wyatt Crockett, had scored his first Test try. That made it 13-0 after 15 minutes.

Jane made a try from nothing in the 33rd minute, receiving the ball almost on halfway and then using his acceleration and swerve to beat the Springboks' captain, John Smit, and Morne Steyn on a weaving run to the line. His second try and Guildford's second gave the All Blacks a 33-7 lead after 65 minutes, then Guildford provided the last pass in a move which created a try for one of the replacements, Colin Slade, in the 70th minute.

South Africa made the bold but ill-fated decision to move the 20-year-old Patrick Lambie to fly-half, after he was named to start a Test for the first time at full-back, and to shift the seasoned No 10 Steyn to No 15.

The move was a tactical failure. Lambie was not able to ignite the Springboks' attack, which relied on shreds of possession won under pressure, and Steyn was a brittle last line of defence.

The All Blacks opened up the Springboks in the first half with kicks behind the back line which Steyn was hard-pressed to retrieve. They also ran big men at Lambie from set-pieces, and though the youngster tackled bravely he was pressured by wave after wave of attackers.

The Springboks scored their only try after 29 minutes, through their veteran captain, Smit, whose 104 caps almost outnumbered the combined Tests of all of his team-mates. South Africa chose to leave 21 front-line players at home for the Australian and New Zealand matches of their Tri-Nations schedule and they paid heavily, losing 39-20 to Australia last weekend and to the All Blacks by a margin which eclipsed their previous heaviest loss in New Zealand,28-0 in 2003.

"The scoreboard looks pretty ugly," Smit said. "It's the age-old rule against these blokes – you turn the ball over and you're going to pay. It's always terrible to lose, especially against your arch rival, and that's something we'll have to take in and try to lift our game when we get back home."

New Zealand M Muliaina; C Jane, C Smith (S B Williams, 53), M Nonu (C Slade, 66), Z Guildford; D Carter, J Cowan (P Weepu, 56); W Crockett, A Hore (C Flynn, 72), B Franks (J Afoa,42-49), S Whitelock (J Hoeata, 72), A Williams, J Kaino(L Messam, 56), A Thomson, R McCaw (capt).

South Africa M Steyn (C McLeod, 66); B Basson (ANdungane, 66), A Jacobs (W Olivier, 67), J de Jongh, L Mvovo; P Lambie, R Pienaar; D Greyling (CJ van der Linde, 47), J Smit (capt), W Kruger (C Ralapelle, 47), G Mostert (R Kankowski,74), A Hargreaves, D Stegmann (Deysel, 58), D Rossouw, J Deysel (A Johnson, 48).

Referee A Rolland (Ireland).

New Zealand

Tries: Jane 2, Slade Guildford 2, Crockett

Cons: Carter 2

Pens: Carter 2

South Africa

Try: Smit

Con: Steyn