The Springboks took plenty of flak while All Blacks captain Richie McCaw won most of the plaudits as South African newspapers gave their judgment today on New Zealand's 19-0 Tri-Nations rugby win in Cape Town.

The Sunday Independent said it was a masterly McCaw who ruined what was meant to be a party to celebrate South African fullback Percy Montgomery's 100th test cap.

McCaw's towering performance matched towering Table Mountain overlooking the beautiful ground of Newlands, rugby writer Peter Bills said.

"Richie McCaw gave one of the greatest displays in world rugby to shatter the new world champions in their own backyard," he said.

"South Africa finished a fumbling, disorganised, broken outfit, laid to waste by the genius of McCaw on the floor and his brilliant reading of the game allied to coruscating tackling."

Also in the Independent, fellow rugby writer Gavin Rich said a visitor from Mars would have been unable to tell which team were rebuilding and which team had won the World Cup and had a massive advantage in experience.

"Certainly on this evidence, it is the new-look All Black team, who won through their mastery at the breakdown, that are the team on the up," he said.

"After this three-try to nil dubbing, the Springboks will know that they will have to pull off a miracle if they are to place the Tri-Nations trophy alongside the World Cup they won just 10 months ago."

If the All Blacks were the masters, the Master-in-Chief was McCaw, he said.

The Sunday Times said the "Bumbleboks blew it" with missed chances and unforced errors on a nightmare afternoon at Newlands.

"This has to go down one of the most ineffectual Springbok performance of all time," the Times' Simnikiwe Xabanisa wrote, adding that the South Africans seemed paralysed at the prospect of ruining Montgomery's big day.

It was match that promised a lot but delivered nothing, as the All Blacks, "led by the all-too-influential Richie McCaw", were great in scrambling defence and technically superb at the breakdown.