18 South Africa
20 New Zealand
by Michael McCann
at Twickenham

FLY-HALF Dan Carter expressed his delight at reaching the first Rugby World Cup final of his career after helping New Zealand defeat South Africa 20-18 in their Rugby World Cup semi-final on Saturday.

The All Blacks fly-half kicked 11 points and created an important second-half try in a narrow win, before expressing his pleasure at reaching next Saturday’s final.

“It is pretty exciting and you could see that in my emotion after the game, I’ve never been in a Rugby World Cup final before so I am pretty excited about that.

“I cannot wait to get into training this week — we are here to win back-to-back World Cups but there is a big challenge ahead of ourselves.”

New Zealand dominated the first half, holding 65 per cent possession and 72 per cent of territory, but South Africa defied the assault to lead 12-7 at half-time.

A yellow card for Jerome Kano after the interval put the All Blacks in further trouble, leaving Carter pleased with how the defending champions responded.

“It is more mental than anything, you’re not wanting to let your teammates down and you’ve got to work a lot harder when down to 14 men.

“It should not take us being down to 14 to spark up like that but it’s something about this team that we lift ourselves when under pressure.

“I was really pleased with the way we played with 14 men and the way we controlled the game right at the end.”

South Africa coach Heyneke Meyer would not say whether he will continue in his role after the World Cup, while admitting that he is not excited by the Springboks’ third-place play-off fixture next Friday.

“It is mentally very, very tough because it doesn’t mean anything to me. It is like kissing your sister.

“The only thing that counts is being world champs."