Andy Haden, the New Zealand manager, hailed his side’s guts and “never-say-die” attitude after their hard-fought win over South Africa in the semi-final of the World Rugby Classic.

The Classic All Blacks, the defending champions, had to dig deep and claw their way to a 20-14 victory over an arguably more gifted Springboks side at the North Field, National Sports Centre, last night.

They will now face the Classic Lions in a repeat of last year’s final, a comfortable 17-3 win for the All Blacks, tomorrow night at 8.30pm.

Haden, who vented his displeasure at his side’s limp 12-6 win over Italy on Monday, looked a far happier man after last night’s determined display.

“Good on them, that was all guts,” said Haden, who won 117 caps for his country from 1972 to 1985. “We were completely outgunned, but we had the heart for it.

“Big tackling was the key for us tonight. We never gave up and never took a step back. Now we’ll look forward to defending our title — that’s what we came here for.”

It took until the eleventh minute for the deadlock to be broken when Wayne McEntree, the flanker, powered his way through the South Africa defence to score. Brendan Laney, who won 20 caps for Scotland, could not find his range from the conversion, though, to leave the score 5-0.

The Springboks made an immediate response with Marc Watson finishing a free-flowing passing move to level before Monty Dumond kicked the conversion to give his side the lead.

It was the All Blacks who started the brighter after the break, with Charlie Hore scoring on the overlap down the left, while Laney fared better with his second conversion attempt, despite kicking into the wind, to make it 12-7.

Hore was at it again moments later with his second try to open up a ten-point lead for the All Blacks, but the Springboks then sprang into life, reducing the deficit through Jaco Pretorius before Dumond kicked the extra points.

Trailing by just three, South Africa seemed to have the momentum, forcing the All Blacks to retreat into their own half for much of the final ten minutes. New Zealand’s unyielding defence protected their line, however, and James Arlidge kicked a penalty with five minutes to go to complete a courageous victory.

In yesterday’s earlier game, the Classic Eagles demolished a lacklustre Italy 48-19 in the Plate semi-final. They will now meet France, the defending champions, tomorrow night.

The one-sided match was marred by a neck injury to Marco Stanojevic, the Italy wing, who was stretchered off and taken to hospital.

Taylor Howden, the driving force behind much of USA’s attacking work, said their new-look side had gelled well since arriving in Bermuda and were confident of winning their first Plate final.

“I thought we came back well from our defeat against South Africa and played pretty good tonight,” said Towden, who scored two tries.

“I understand it’s been a while since America played on a Saturday night and we’re really pleased to have an opportunity to play for some silverware.

“There’s 17 new guys on tour, including myself, and it’s been a great experience so far.”

Also scoring tries for the Eagles were Matt Byrd, Peter Dahl and two from Mike Palefau. Italy’s try scorers were Paco Ogert, Piergiogio Menapace and Simone Carlesi.

Marcello Cuttitta, the team’s manager, said their performance was simply not good enough.

“I honestly thought the boys would have had a more positive attitude,” Cuttitta said. “I thought USA deserved the win because they played the positive rugby.”