The All Blacks survived a massive scare from provincial side the Lions before prevailing 41-35 in the match Johannesburg.
The Lions came out firing and were the first to score with halfback Nico Steyn diving over under the posts after a period of sustained attack close to the All Blacks line.
The conversion was good with the hosts ahead 7-0 after about five minutes.
The All Blacks were soon under their posts again after an intercept try to Lions flanker Siba Mahashe not long after the restart. The conversion was successful with the hosts racing out to a 14-0 lead.
The All Blacks didn’t go into their shells and were the next to score with halfback Noah Hotham dotting down under the posts after a clean break from wing Emoni Narawa.
Noah Hotham scores a try.
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Fullback Beauden Barrett added the extras to cut the Lions lead to 14-7.
The All Blacks started to make some inroads into the Lions defence and stretched the hosts out wide with wing Narawa scoring untouched in the right-hand corner.
Barrett missed the sideline conversion, leaving the Lions leading 14-12 midway through the first half.
The hosts though wouldn’t go away and they were the next to score with wing Kelly Mpeku diving over acrobatically in the corner.
The sideline conversion was good to extend the Lions advantage to 21-12 with less than 10 minutes left in the first half.
The All Blacks struck back soon after with openside Ethan Blackadder scoring down the left edge after a break by wing Fehi Fineanganofo to cut the Lions lead to 21-17.
Fineanganofo was the next to dot down in the left corner, but the try was disallowed due to a forward pass in the lead up, with the Lions taking a four point lead into halftime.
The second half started just like the first with the Lions bursting out of the blocks to score first, with wing Erich Cronje pouncing on a loose ball after a break from the hosts to extend their advantage.
The conversion was successful to put the Lions ahead 28-17.
The crowd was really getting behind the home side throughout the match and the noise was impressive despite the small numbers in the stadium compared to the opening test between the Springboks and All Blacks last weekend.
The Lions, buoyed by their vocal fans, kept the pressure on the All Blacks and scored a scrum pushover try and the sideline conversion again good to push the host’s lead out to 35-17.
The All Blacks were being starved of possession but they kept themselves in the game by being the next to score, with midfielder Rieko Ioane making a break at halfway before outsprinting the cover defence to score.
First-five Richie Mo’unga kicked the extras to cut the Lions lead to 35-24 with half an hour remaining in Johannesburg.
Ioane moved out to the wing when Fineanganofo was subbed off for Anton Lienert-Brown and the Blues star nabbed an intercept of his own, scoring next to the posts to bag his second try of the night and bring the All Blacks right back in it.
Mo’unga kicked the conversion to make it a four point game again at 35-31 to the Lions.
The All Blacks were playing far from flawless rugby but they hit the front with about 20 minutes to go with Blackadder grabbing his second try of the game to put the tourists ahead 36-35 with 18 minutes left.
The All Blacks finally put the game beyond doubt in the 80th minute with Narawa scoring his second try of the game after cutting back inside the scrambling Lions defence and powering over the tryline in the tackle.
Mo’unga missed the conversion on the fulltime siren but it didn’t matter, with the All Blacks claiming a nervy 41-35 victory to maintain their perfect record on their tour of South Africa.
See how the match unfolded in our live blog below:
All Blacks match-day 23 (Test caps and non-Test games in brackets. * indicates new All Black):
2. Samisoni Taukei’aho (44, 2)
5. Patrick Tuipulotu (57, 4) – Captain
6. Wallace Sititi (21, 2)
7. Ethan Blackadder (14, 2)
8. Semisi Ta’eiloa (0, 1)
10. Richie Mo’unga (56, 1)
11. Emoni Narawa (4, 2)
12. Timoci Tavatavanawai (2, 2)
14. Fehi Fineanganofo (1, 2)
15. Beauden Barrett (144, 3)
16. Bradley Slater (0, 1)
17. Ofa Tu’ungafasi (68, 2)
20. Peter Lakai (11, 2)
21. Kyle Preston (2, 3)
23. Anton Lienert-Brown (91, 3)
