Die ding het geruk at Loftus on Saturday as the Springboks lost 32-30 to New Zealand in the Rugby Championship.
With 15 minutes to go in the clash, South Africa still enjoyed a 30-18 lead.
The Loftus faithful was going crazy – sensing a famous and historic win.
But as the chants of Ole rang out and SA closing in on a celebration, the All Blacks burst their bubble with two late tries to spoil the party and win the Test match.
It was ultimately the bench of the visitors that proved to make the difference in a match that, while not the most exciting in terms of a free-running affair, still kept fans on the edge of their seats until the final whistle.
Despite dominating the early possession and territory, the Boks failed to build some scoreboard pressure.
Their best opportunity for an early try came in the 12th minute when centre Damian de Allende was held up in-goal and the Boks had to settle for a penalty conversion to make it 6-0.
Two Beauden Barrett penalties for the All Blacks saw the two teams enter the break with the scores locked at 6-6.
While the first half didn’t deliver anything in terms of tries scored, the second half lived up to expectation.
A break from Willie le Roux three minutes from the restart saw the Boks take the ball wide and centre Jesse Kriel then sliced through three defenders for the first try of the match (16-6).
The Boks were on top and when captain Siya Kolisi powered his way over an All Black defender to pop to De Allende for their second five-pointer, SA looked in control of the match (23-6).
Then with 27 minutes left to play, Aphiwe Dyantyi failed to tackle Beauden Barrett from a Faf de Klerk high ball.
When the flyhalf went to ground, All Blacks hooker Cody Taylor spotted a gap around the fringes and then unleashed Aaron Smith with a pass that could have been called for going forward on another day (23-13).
The All Blacks were back in the fight.
But five minutes later the Boks had a stroke of fortune themselves when Cheslin Kolbe touched down the ball on the line after some ferocious tackling from the visitors.
At 30-13 the Boks thought they had beaten the world champs and coach Rassie Erasmus starting making his subs.
It backfired as the youngsters simply didn’t have the experience to finish off the game.
With 19 minutes left to play, All Blacks left wing Rieko Ioane dotted down after the ball had gone wide from a rolling maul (30-18).
With five minutes left, the All Blacks took the ball through 13 phases against a desperate Bok defence and ultimately got rewarded when Scott Barrett dotted down.
Loftus’ krag was then getrip when Ardie Savea dotted down from close quarters to make it 30-30.
Barrett converted at the same time of the final whistle to make it 32-30.
Boks – Tries:
Jesse Kriel, Damian de Allende and Cheslin Kolbe; Conversions: Handre Pollard (3); Penalties: Pollard (3).
All Blacks – Tries:
Aaron Smith, Rieko Ioane, Scott Barrett and Ardie Savea; Conversions: Richie Mo’unga (3); Penalties: Beauden Barrett (2).