30 Sep 2012

Laser light shone at Cruden

7:18 pm on 30 September 2012

The All Blacks have beaten the Pumas 54-15 in Argentina to take the inaugural Rugby Championship title.

The All Blacks scored seven tries, to Cory Jane (3), Julian Savea (2), Aaron Smith and Ma'a Nonu at the match at La Plata, near Buenos Aires. New Zealand led 32-8 at half time.

Martin Landajo and Gonzalo Camacho scored tries for the home side.

The victory takes the All Blacks to 21 points, South Africa are on 12, Australia are on eight points and Argentina three.

The All Blacks play South Africa in Johannesburg in the final round next weekend, while Argentina host Australia.

Laser flashed

The game was tarnished by a local fan flashing a laser in the face of All Blacks goalkicker Aaron Cruden.

Cruden had the laser light shone near his eyes as he lined up a last-minute sideline conversion.

While the All Blacks raved about their time in Argentina Cruden felt the incident tarnished an otherwise memorable week.

He noticed the laser as he was preparing his kick but still slotted the goal, from the touchline.

"It shot through my mind that maybe they were trying to put me off but I just tried to focus on the ball and strike it and luckily it went through," said Cruden, who replaced five-eighth Dan Carter midway through the second half.

"I've never had that before but I've seen it (before in a Test match) on telly.

"It's a bit of a shame when things like that happen but you've got to be the bigger man and put things like that behind you."

South Africa beat Wallabies

Earlier on Saturday, the Springboks have claimed the first four-try bonus point win of the Rugby Championship, beating Australia 31-8 in Pretoria.

The Australians were looking to extend their winning streak over South Africa to six and win for the first time at Loftus, but were never in the hunt, AAP reports.

They trailed 14-3 at half-time, which could have been much greater but for the home side missing four penalty kicks while they had two tries disallowed by the television match official.