secured a spot in their eighth World Rugby Classic final and Argentina clawed their way from behind to win.

Their opposition did not disgrace themselves, either, with South Africa going down 25-15 to the All Blacks and the US Eagles losing 22-19 to the Pumas.

In the Plate semi-final, South Africa jumped to an early lead but New Zealand roared back and will meet the winner of tonight's Canada-Barbarians match in Saturday's final. France/Bermuda play England at 7 p.m. in the other match tonight.

"That was the final right there. They were a good, well organised team who could beat everyone else in the tournament -- a typical Springbok performance,'' said All Blacks captain Andy Haden.

Wing Deon Oosthuizen opened the scoring after a midfield break by centre Helgard Muller but the New Zealanders used quick rucking to put themselves in front of the South African posts where scrum half Alan Crowley burst through to tie the game.

South Africa threatened to take the lead again when captain Divan Serfontein intercepted an errant New Zealand pass deep inside his own half and raced the length of field.

However he was swamped in the speedy All Black covering defence and the Springboks let the All Blacks escape when a long pass from Irven October was snagged by New Zealand wing Terry Wright who scored under the posts.

The Springboks were constantly penalised for offside infringements and strong running back row forwards Rob Penney and Alan Dawson set centre Bernie McCahill up with a try.

The Springboks retaliated and a fluent passing move in the All Blacks' 22 saw Gerber score in the corner to take the score to 15-10 at halftime.

A quick penalty saw prop Uli Schmidt pass to lock Kulu Ferreira who crashed over the line for the tying score. McCahill and fly half Kieran Crowley used strong runs to put the New Zealanders back in command and solid forward mauling resulted in lock Brent Anderson scoring.

Continued All Black pressure bent the tenacious South African defence until it broke. Strong forward drives culminated in a fine back line move which saw centre Robbie Deans feed wing Joe Leota for the final score of the game.

Earlier, the US took an early lead after blocking the Argentinian fly half's clearance. Flanker Mike Sawicki pounced on the loose ball to score and the try was converted by Michael DeJong.

The Pumas evened things straight away when a back row move from in front of the US posts saw their flanker Miguel Glastra score a try which was also converted.

The US replied with their own back row move which finished with scrum half Greg Goodman feeding wing Inoke Yaumauwai. DeJong then converted a penalty to push the score to 19-7.

But Pumas' Brett Taylor and Ricardo DeVedia scored to tie the game 19-19.

Argentine pressure gave Capalbo a chance to redeem himself and he kicked a penalty from in front of the posts for the win.