South Africa ended their four-match losing streak on Saturday in a pulsating rugby test match at Ellis Park, Johannesburg by defeating traditional rivals New Zealand and recording the most points ever scored against the All Blacks in a test. But the match was nailbitingly close and the result in doubt until the final whistle.

A mere six points separated the teams at the end of a high scoring game which South Africa won by 46 points to 40. In scoring their win, the first in the current Tri-Nations series, the Springboks modified the "expansive game" introduced by controversial coach Nick Mallet by the restrained reintroduction of tactical kicking, a stratagem which disconcerted the powerful but big - and in the case of Jonah Lomu, even lumbering - New Zealand backline.

The victory won Mallet a reprieve from growing public pressure for his removal, some of it orchestrated by former Springboks who charged that in his quest for a new style of running, attacking rugby he had culpably neglected "the fundamentals".

The Springbok performance at Ellis Park proved that if insufficiently-honed scrumming and lineout skills contributed to their four successive defeats - by England, Australia (twice) and New Zealand - Mallet had sense enough to heed the criticisms of former rugby stars and to learn from the defeats.

Much, however, will depend on the result of the upcoming match on August 26th against the Wallabies, Australia having won the last three encounters against South Africa and, in some way, even ousted New Zealand as the team to beat.

South Africa deserved their win over New Zealand for two reasons: not only did they score six tries to four by New Zealand but - as important - after twice losing the lead in a toughly-contested second half, they fought back to score the winning try, a just reward for the earlier resolute defence of their try line against wave after wave of New Zealand assaults.

At half-time South Africa led by 33 points to 27 and the nearly 60,000 spectators at Ellis Park could have had no illusions that the second half would be a tensely fought dual. With hardly more than five minutes remaining in the first half, South Africa, after scoring five tries and putting 33 points on the board to 13 for New Zealand, looked as though they might win easily. But then New Zealand struck back twice via tries by winger Tana Umaga and full back Christian Cullen and narrowed the gap to five points.

That served notice to the Springboks and their excited supporters to prepare for a bruising final 40 minutes. But the Springboks, ably led by number eight Andre Vos and cheered on by a wildly excited crowd, played tenaciously to emerge as winners. The try scorers for South Africa were inside centre Robbie Fleck (two tries) - he was actually dropped but then recalled to replace the injured De Wet Barry - scrumhalf Werner "Smiley" Swanepoel (two tries), winger Chester Williams and mercurial full back Thinus Delport (a try apiece).

Their New Zealand counterparts were Umaga (two tries) and Cullen (two tries). Cullen's second was controversial. It came after the referee awarded a scrum to New Zealand after incorrectly ruling that South African winger Breyton Paulse had knocked on (television replays showed that he did not touch the ball).

Simnikiwe Xabanisa, a black South African journalist, summed up the reason for the changed mood of the South Africa's fanatical rugby fans from deepest despondency to elated joy. All it takes to revive their spirits, he wrote, is one decent win over the old enemy.

In Australia Wallaby coach Rod Macqueen, who watched the match on television, said: "The Springboks played very well. One of the factors in their game was their ball control and extraordinarily good turnover rate. We always said (Saturday's forthcoming match) would be a very hard game."