De Villiers banned as All Blacks trample all over the Springboks

South African wing Jean de Villiers has been suspended for two weeks for a dangerous tackle during the Springboks' 31-17 loss to New Zealand in their Tri-Nations Test on Saturday.

De Villiers had been cited for an alleged lifting tackle on All Blacks winger Rene Ranger in the 27th minute of the match, and after a judicial hearing in Wellington yesterday he was suspended until 1 August and will miss the Springboks' next Tri-Nations match against Australia on Saturday in Brisbane.

He is the second Springboks player to be banned in this year's competition. Lock Bakkies Botha was suspended for nine weeks after he admitted head butting All Blacks scrum-half Jimmy Cowan in the 32-12 loss last week at Eden Park.

New Zealand broke South Africa's grip on the Tri-Nations title with this win over the defending tournament and world champions as, for the second week running, they ran four tries past the Springboks.

All of New Zealand's tries were scored by backs as they overwhelmed South Africa with a fast-paced and skilful 15-man game. Centre Ma'a Nonu, fullback Mils Muliaina, winger Rene Ranger and his replacement Israel Dagg scored the tries. Lock Danie Rossouw and flanker Schalk Burger crossed for the Springboks.

All Blacks captain Richie McCaw said two wins from two matches against the Springboks was the best possible start for his side. "When you're playing against the world champions or when you have the two top teams in world rugby out there, that's how you test yourself," McCaw said.

New Zealand scored their first two tries through Nonu and Muliaina when South Africa was reduced to 14 men between the fourth and 14th minutes of the first half by the sin-binning of Rossouw.

Rossouw won his place in the Springboks' starting lineup at the expense of Botha, who was sin-binned during the first half of last week's Test. Rossouw's ejection on Saturday followed an altercation with McCaw.

His absence cost South Africa dearly as Nonu crossed for a try in the sixth minute and Muliaina in the 12th to give the All Blacks an early 10-0 lead and an advantage they never relinquished.

Rossouw returned from the sin-bin to score South Africa's first try in the 36th minute, cutting New Zealand's lead to 13-7 at half-time.

The Springboks were more competitive at set pieces than they had been at Auckland but remained confounded by the pace of the All Blacks' game and their inability to stamp their more structured style on the match.

New Zealand counterattacked well from poor Springboks kicks and from forced turnovers and spread the ball quickly through the backline.

South Africa coach Peter de Villiers was "frustrated" by new refereeing interpretations which rewarded fast-paced rugby but negated his team's ten-man game.

"We've played now six [Tests] and in six games we've had six different types of plays on the ground," he said.

De Villiers sought clarification of how the new interpretations were being applied "because I don't like to prepare guys to cheat and it seems to me that's the only way going forward if you want to be on top of those kind of things and that's 70 percent of your game."

The All Blacks' attack-at-all-costs approach was illustrated by Dagg's game-breaking try in the 64th minute.

New Zealand led 21-10 but was still under some pressure when Dagg, having just replaced Ranger, received the ball on the left flank and scythed through four tackles to score.

Scorers: New Zealand: Tries: Nonu, Muliaina, Ranger, Dagg. Cons: Carter. Pens: Carter 2, Weepu. South Africa: Tries: Rossouw, Burger. Cons: Steyn 2.

New Zealand: M Muliaina; C Jane, C Smith, M Nonu, R Ranger; D Carter, P Weepu; K Read, R McCaw, J Kaino, T Donnelly, B Thorn, O Franks, K Mealamu, T Woodcock. Replacements: C Flynn, B Franks, S Whitelock, L Messam, J Cowan, A Cruden, I Dagg.

South Africa: Z Kirchner; J de Villiers, J Fourie, W Olivier, B Habana; M Steyn, R Januarie; G Steenkamp, J Smit, CJ vd Linde, D Rossouw, V Matfield, S Burger, F Louw, P Spies. Replacements: C Ralepelle, BJ Botha, A Bekker, R Kankowski, R Pienaar, B James, G Aplon.

Referee: A Rolland (Ire). Attendance: 36,000