The 2010 Tri Nations Series was the 15th annual Tri Nations series between the national

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

teams of

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. New Zealand clinched the series crown with one match remaining, scoring two tries in the last 3 minutes to defeat South Africa 29–22 on 21 August in the first-ever Test at

FNB Stadium First National Bank Stadium or simply FNB Stadium ( af, ENB-stadion), also known as Soccer City ( af, Sokkerstad) and The Calabash, is an association football (soccer) and Rugby union stadium located in Nasrec, bordering the Soweto area of Johan ...

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

. The 2010 Tri-Nations season has seen new records set by the All Blacks; they are the first team to finish undefeated since the expansion of the tournament to 9 rounds, and have seen the highest number of tries and overall points in the history of the tournament. The series concluded 11 September 2010 with New Zealand's win over Australia 23–22. The 2011 series commenced on 23 July 2011 in Australia.

Background

New Zealand, South Africa and Australia were ranked first, second, and third in the

IRB World Rankings The World Rugby Rankings (formerly the IRB Rankings) is a ranking system for national teams in rugby union, managed by World Rugby, the sport's governing body. There are separate men's and women's rankings. The teams of World Rugby's member natio ...

, but this changed due to

Australia's Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by a ...

21–20 loss to England on 16 June 2010. This game moved Australia down to fourth in the

but they returned to third in rankings a week later, after

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

's heavy defeat to

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

and

's win against

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

in the last week of the 2010 mid-year rugby test series. The final match of the

Bledisloe Cup The Bledisloe Cup is an annual rugby union competition originally staged between the national teams of Australia's Wallabies and New Zealand's All Blacks that has been contested since the 1930s. The frequency that the competition is held has va ...

series between Australia and New Zealand took place after the Tri-Nations, on 30 October (the first 3 matches of the series were part of the Tri-Nations).

Standings

Fixtures

All times are local

New Zealand vs South Africa, Auckland

Touch judges:

Alain Rolland Alain Colm Pierre Rolland (born 22 August 1966) is a former Ireland rugby union international and rugby union referee. He also played for Leinster. He refereed the final of the 2007 Rugby World Cup, and was an assistant referee in the final o ...

(

)
Stuart Dickinson (

)
Television match official:
Ben Skeen (

) * Following the match, Bakkies Botha was handed a nine-week suspension for headbutting Jimmy Cowan in the first minute of the match, an offence missed by referee Alan Lewis. The suspension sidelined Botha for the remainder of the Tri Nations.

New Zealand vs South Africa, Wellington

Touch judges:
Alan Lewis (

)
Stuart Dickinson (

)
Television match official:
Glenn Newman (

) * During this match the All Blacks became the highest point scorers in international rugby, passing France. * Following the match, Jean de Villiers was handed a two-week suspension for a lifting tackle against Rene Ranger. De Villiers' previously good disciplinary record was cited as a mitigating factor with regard to the length of suspension. The suspension sidelined de Villiers for the Springboks' next match against Australia.

Australia vs South Africa, Brisbane

* Following the match, two players, one from each team, were handed suspensions: ** Jaque Fourie was suspended for four weeks for a spear tackle of Richard Brown. He will miss the Springboks' next Test against the All Blacks. ** Quade Cooper was suspended for two weeks for a spear tackle of Morné Steyn. As in the case of Jean de Villiers last week, Cooper's previously good disciplinary history was cited as a mitigating factor. The

Australian Rugby Union Rugby Australia Ltd, previously named the Australian Rugby Union Limited and Australian Rugby Football Union Limited, is an Australian company operating the premier rugby union competition in Australia and teams. It has its origins in 1949. It ...

appealed the length of the ban, presumably because the suspensions of Fourie and de Villiers kept them out of only one Test, but was denied. Cooper was sidelined for the first two Bledisloe Cup Tests in Melbourne and Christchurch.

Australia vs New Zealand, Melbourne

* Following the match, IRB referee chief Paddy O'Brien announced that Cobus Wessels would be dropped as a touch judge for the upcoming New Zealand–Australia Test because of a number of key errors, most notably Wessels' recommendation that Wallabies wing Drew Mitchell receive the first of his two yellow cards for what O'Brien deemed a marginal penalty. As a result, the IRB made a one-off exception to its standard policy of requiring neutral touch judges and referees for international matches, assigning New Zealander Keith Brown to take Wessels' place.

New Zealand vs Australia, Christchurch

South Africa vs New Zealand, Johannesburg

* Springboks captain

John Smit John William Smit, OIS, (born 3 April 1978) is a former South African rugby union player and former chief executive officer of the Sharks. He was the 50th captain of the South Africa national team, and led the team to win the 2007 Rugby World C ...

became the second Springbok to earn 100 Test

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

, after

Percy Montgomery Percival Colin Montgomery OIS (born 15 March 1974) is a South African former professional rugby union player. When he ended his international career in August 2008, he held the all-time records for both caps and points for South Africa's nati ...

. * The result of this match meant that the All Blacks took the 2010 Tri-Nations title with one match remaining, as well as the Freedom Cup. * This game also marked the All Blacks' 1000th win in international rugby, including non-Test matches.

South Africa vs Australia, Pretoria

* For the second straight week, a Springbok earned his 100th Test

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. Caps typically have a visor, or no brim at all. They are popular in casual and informal se ...

, with

Victor Matfield Victor Matfield (born 11 May 1977) is a South African former professional rugby union player. He played for and South African rugby union captains, captained the South Africa national rugby union team, South Africa national team (Springboks) as ...

reaching this milestone.

South Africa vs Australia, Bloemfontein

* This was the Wallabies' first win on the

Highveld The Highveld (Afrikaans: ''Hoëveld'', where ''veld'' means "field") is the portion of the South African inland plateau which has an altitude above roughly 1500 m, but below 2100 m, thus excluding the Lesotho mountain regions to the south-east of ...

since 1963. * John Smit earned his 102nd Test cap, equalling the South Africa record of

. * Morné Steyn extended his personal streak of successful kicks at goal in Tests to 38. Statistics on success rates of goal kickers were not kept until the late 1980s, but it is very likely that Steyn has set an all-time record. Steyn surpassed the previous (recorded) best of

Scotland's Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

Chris Paterson Christopher Douglas Paterson, MBE (born 30 March 1978) is an ambassador and specialist coach for the Scotland and Edinburgh rugby union teams. He is a former professional rugby union player who played for Scotland and, for the most part of hi ...

at 36.

Australia vs New Zealand, Sydney

:Source: Tri Nations Web *This test was a milestone for

Richie McCaw Richard Hugh McCaw (born 31 December 1980) is a retired New Zealand professional rugby union player. He captained the national team, the All Blacks, in 110 out of his 148 test matches, and won two Rugby World Cups. He has won the World Rugby ...

, who surpassed

Sean Fitzpatrick Sean Brian Thomas Fitzpatrick (born 4 June 1963) is a former rugby union player who represented New Zealand, and is widely regarded as one of the finest players ever to come from that country. Early life and family Fitzpatrick was born in Auc ...

as the most-capped New Zealand captain. *The win is the 10th win in a row for New Zealand over Australia, a new record. *New Zealand are the first team in the Tri Nations series to win undefeated since 2003, and set records for the most points (184) and tries scored (22).

Player statistics

Leading try scorers

''Source
scrum.com
'

Leading point scorers

''Source

'

References

External links

All Blacks Tri Nations website
*

{{The Rugby Championship The Rugby Championship Tri Nations Tri Tr1 2010 rugby union tournaments for national teams