Publications
Partners
London - New Zealand captain Richie McCaw said the All Blacks' 20-18 Rugby World Cup victory over South Africa at Twickenham on Saturday was every bit as hard as they expected.
As it happened: Boks v All Blacks
"We did what we came here to do, it was hard today but that's always the case against Springboks," McCaw said after leading his side into a second successive final.
"If you look at the first half, our indiscipline was keeping South Africa in the game (but) we held our composure well and the points came.
"I've been saying all week we would be up against the old enemy... it's great to come out the right side."
Victorious coach Steve Hansen said: "It was always going to be close, they're a great side and they showed that again today. I was really proud of our guys, they kept their composure."
"Coming out of half-time we added a few points and stayed composed.
"We just needed to come out (for the second half) and start taking the game to them rather than waiting for them to take it to us.
"We talked about it at half-time. We talked about keeping composure and talked about winning the first 10 minutes."
Centre Conrad Smith said: "They played very well put us under pressure, didn't give us much room, we had to dig deep and I'm proud of how we did it.
"(At half-time) we just talked about getting the ball out just a bit quicker, nothing big, just a few adjustments."
