It's hard enough to beat the All Blacks when you have the ball, without it, it's impossible.

South Africa spent 60 of the 70 minutes of Saturday's World Rugby Classic final defending and the result was as you might expect in that situation.

The All Blacks ran in four tries, through Tony Marsh, Cameron Pither, Scott McLeod and Keith Lowen, conceded just one to Wim Meyer, and in the end comfortably won their second successive Classic crown 28-5.

"It was tough, you can't defend all the time, you have to play rugby with the ball," said Springboks coach Mark Wood. "The All Blacks were covering us at the ruck and we were unable to do anything about that.

"We were trying to get our hands on the first phase (ball), but when they were carrying the ball they were patient, and they drove it up and drove it up and to defend for 35 minutes a half is really difficult. The wheels will fall off.

"We just couldn't get it from them, and in the second half when we did get it down there (in their half) it just didn't go our way. I think if we'd had some more possession and could drive on a bit the positiveness would have come through that, but we were just defending, they were carrying the ball all day, it was hard."

That it took nearly 20 minutes for the defending champions to go in front had as much to do with South Africa's determined defence as it did with New Zealand's ability to let their opponents off the hook.

Twice in the opening five minutes it took timely tackles from Dion Kayser and Sasha Marot to stop Blair Cook and Jackie Tarrant inches short of scoring a try. And then, when the All Blacks finally worked a two on one overlap, Shane Stephens knocked on with the line at his mercy.

Still the pressure eventually told when Marsh fell on Hore's grubber kick under the posts, and despite Dave Tieuti and Wim Meyer's combined effort to stop Cook just short of the line again moments later it was only a brief reprieve.

Having been denied out wide, the All Blacks merely switched the focus of their attack, bashed their way up the middle and Pither slipped in under the posts for the easiest of tries. At 14-0 the All Blacks were in complete control and never really looked like being threatened.

Meyer's try briefly dragged South Africa back into the game, but the four minutes they held on to the ball prior to Meyer diving over in the corner was their longest spell of possession in the match.

For New Zealand the only real complaint is that they should have scored far more points than they did given the amount of ball they had. Cook alone could have had a hat-trick, but after being denied twice by last-ditch tackles he then knocked on when he was clear just before half time.

South Africa had slightly more of the ball after the break but just couldn't do anything with it, the All Blacks smothered them at the breakdown, drifted across to close any gaps out wide, and were clinical in taking two more tries from McLeod and Lowen when the opportunities arose.

The last try from Lowen, which came when the Springboks made a mess of a scrum underneath their own posts, rather summed up the difference in quality between the two teams.

"We had the ball for long periods, particularly in the first half it felt like we had all the ball, and we probably didn't get enough points," said All Blacks scrum half Justin Marshall. "But, what we did do is put them under a lot of pressure and eventually you're going to tire if you don't have the ball.

"I think they tired towards the middle of that second half, with all the possession we had we wore them down, got the tries when the opportunities were there, and we showed we've got a little bit of ticker as well because we had to hang in there when they got quite a lot of possession at the end."

The day's other final in the Plate competition between Argentina and the USA was an even more one-sided affair. The defending champion Pumas hammered the Americans from the first whistle to the last, and in the end the only surprise was that the margin of victory wasn't greater than the final 40-0 outcome.

Javier Pertile got the ball rolling for Argentina inside the first three minutes when he finished off a fine break by fullback Sebastian Crispo, and further tries followed for Juan Pablo Angelillo, Julio Brolese and Marcos Menta as Argentina put themselves 26-0 up by half time.

Frederico Todeschini kicked four conversions and there were further tries for Agustin Carrara and Gregory Tutard after the break as the Pumas ran away with the game.

The only attack of note from the US came midway through the second half when prop Dennis Walker barged through a couple of tackles before being hauled down 10 metres short of the line.

He had no support, however, and the move collapsed before it had even really begun, much like his side's final hopes had done almost an hour earlier.