All Blacks add grit to guile as weighty contest makes light of absent hosts

The stomach-churning intensity of the semi-final between New Zealand and South Africa made England’s early exit seem a distant memoryIf this was an invasion, it was an altogether benign one. Enterprising schoolchildren had set up stall on Whitton Road to turn out passable renditions of the New Zealand and South African national anthems and the boerewors and braai stalls were doing an appreciably better trade than those offering pasties and hog roasts.​But beneath the bonhomie, the cutting edge of one of the world’s most keenly contested rivalries on one of the biggest sporting stages added an …