All Blacks make a statement in the duel that was 'coming forever'

There was a point on Saturday night in Yokohama when Kieran Read gathered his troops about him and told everyone to just take five.

Take a breath, he said. Do what you do and execute. Easier said than done when the Springboks are in suffocation mode. It was all New Zealand could do to keep their heads above water as tackles and intensity tested them in that first quarter. Here was proof, it seemed, of all those pre-tournament predictions that the world champs would be knocked off their perch.