New Zealand captain Sam Cane receives FIRST EVER Rugby World Cup final red card
New Zealand's first half of the Rugby World Cup final went from bad to worse when Sam Cane was red carded.
The All Black's captain saw his yellow upgraded to a red upon review, dealing a pivotal advantage to opponents South Africa.
The decision allowed South Africa to further their advantage heading into the break, taking a 12-6 lead and New Zealand on shaky ground.
Shannon Frizell had earlier been sin-binned in an ill-disciplined first-half for the three-time winners, and the Springboks converted three more points before the break.
New Zealand showed some resolve though, cutting the deficit back to six points, the kind of determination they will certainly need without their captain in the second period.
The decision may not prove to be too controversial, with even All Blacks legend Sean Fitzpatrick agreeing with the call to upgrade the yellow.
«I feel very sorry for him,» he said. «But when you look at it like that in real time it's a red card unfortunately.
»We've just got to get on with it now, in terms of the way we're playing we dominated at the break, not having Sam Cane there now is an issue but we just need to move on.
«We've got 14 men for the rest of the game and they know that, they've done it before, and quite often teams of 14 men actually play better.»
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