A peerless display over two days at the Adelaide Oval culminated in a tense 28-20 win over South Africa, who had beaten New Zealand in the final three years ago.

New Zealand had never won across the Tasman since the tournament was established in South Australia in 2006 but atoned for those previous lapses with a dominant performance which increased their lead in the overall standings to 13 points with stops at Twickenham and Murrayfield remaining next month.

They started the weekend with a slender five point advantage over England and benefited before the final kicked off after their closest rivals were eliminated by South Africa in the second semifinal.

New Zealand had not lost to South Africa - twice winners in Adelaide - for two years and maintained that record though the victory was not assured until Tomasi Cama conjured up a try while backtracking with two minutes remaining.

The player of the tournament surged under the posts from a scrum to end stout South African resistance.

New Zealand coach Gordon Tietjens paid tribute to Cama's contribution to a long sought after victory on Australian soil.

"There's some special players in this team, and I thought Tomasi Cama was simply outstanding in the final," he said.

"It could have gone either way for a while. South Africa were very quick and dangerous."

Tietjens was happy to add another achievement to his impressive coaching resume.

"We've never won in Adelaide so it's real special for us," he said.

DJ Forbes, the New Zealand captain since 2006, was equally delighted before leading the haka on the Oval for the first time.

"Coming off a big win in Hong Kong [last weekend] we really wanted to front up," he said.

"To come here, put in a big performance and guts it out is definitely a proud moment."

The series continues in England on May 21-22 and ends in Scotland the following weekend.


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