The New Zealand All Blacks withstood a strong challenge from a spirited Celtic Barbarians on Saturday to win their seventh World Rugby Classic.

With no score by the half, the crowd of was thinking of a possibe uspet but the chance of that was extinguished when the Kiwis scored twice through Terry Wright and Rob Penney.

"It was a bit stop-start and I'm sure both teams would have liked a few more tries -- and public too,'' said All Blacks captain Andy Haden. "We would have liked there to have been a bit more open running. Our guy were probing all the time looking for holes but there weren't any.'' "I'm a bit disappointed for the crowd that it was no more flowing becuase they paid to come here and see a spectacle like the (semi-final) South Africa game.'' The Barbarians got the crowd behind them at the opening kickout when they replied to the All Blacks haka with a hip-swinging version of the Macarena.

Then it was all business, as both sides attacked and countered throughout the first half, with defence being a priority. But the New Zealanders began to take advantage of careless errors in the second half. An intercepted Ring pass sparked a Kiwi counterattack that saw fly half Kieran Crowley long pass find speedster Wright, who swerved around Glen Webbe to score in the corner.

With the lead, the All Blacks were able to to tighten their grip on the game and heightened forward pressure resulted in Penney crashing over from short range to stretch the advantage.

The game became a midfield battle, with both sides creating half-chances, which the opposing defences managed to nullify.

Pumas end local hopes But then it was all business, as both sides attacked and countered throughout the first half, with defence being a priority.

But the New Zealanders began to take advantage of careless errors in the second half. An intercepted Ring pass sparked a Kiwi counterattack that saw fly half Kieran Crowley long pass find speedster Wright, who swerved around Glen Webbe to score in the corner.

With the lead, the All Blacks were able to to tighten their grip on the game and heightened forward pressure resulted in Penney crashing over from short range to stretch the advantage.

In the final minute, the Barbarians were awarded a penalty near the All Blacks goal line and a long pass to Sean Cooper saw the feisty Welsh centre shrug off two tackles and cross the line for the try.

Argentina 29 France/Bermuda 5 Earlier, Bermuda/France's fairytale run came to an end as Argentina took advantage of the joint side's quiet start to win their second consecutive Plate competition.

Bermuda/France failed to get into the game until the second half when they showed some of the skill which helped them beat England on Thursday night.

"We were flat after Thursday's victory. They scored too many points early on for us to be able to make it up when we came together,'' said Bermuda national team coach Kieran Peacock The Pumas played their best game of the tournament, leaping out to a 29-point lead on the strength of tries from Martin Yanguela, Manuel Aguire, Mariano Bosch and Daniel Poett.

Bermuda/France tried to get on the board again behind the strong forward play of Eric Melville and Peter Shillingford but were thwarted when the another deep kick by the Pumas put them under pressure with a lineout on their own goal line. A quick throw-in was intercepted by Guillermo Paz, who extended the Argentine lead.

Finally, Gareth Davies took a quick penalty and waltzed downfield before passing to Shillingford, who in turn fed a speeeding Olsen, who scored in the corner. Florien Rossengaux added the convert.

South Africa 34, Canada 12 The Canadians were unable to contain Springboks' number eight Richard Britton, who contributed half of his team's points during the third-place match. The lanky back row star scored three tries and added two converts, while Uli Schmidt added two tries and Gerome Booysen one.