All Blacks presented with an opening

Jean de Villiers © Gallo Images

The Springboks will console themselves with the knowledge that their Tri-Nations destiny still lies in their own hands, but perhaps it will be more to the point to say New Zealand can now say the same thing.

The South Africans had been wanting to head across the Tasman Sea later this week with the All Blacks shut out of the competition and their final match in Hamilton rendered a dead rubber. It was where most of the smart money was going ahead of this past weekend’s match in Brisbane was going, and in that sense Richie McCaw’s team must feel they have been thrown a massive lifeline.

It is still a huge ask for the All Blacks. To win the competition they have to either win on Saturday while keeping the Boks from getting a bonus point, and then pick up a full house of five when they close the competition against Australia in Wellington, or they have to erase a points for and against differential that currently stands at 39 and prevent the Boks from getting two log points.

But while the Boks should still be expected to complete their third successful Tri-Nations campaign in 14 seasons of trying, the All Black outlook looks a whole lot brighter than it had looked for them. For the first time in several weeks their destiny is in their own hands, and they have more than just revenge for their defeats in South Africa to play for when they host the Boks in what is already a sell-out in Hamilton.

They should fancy their chances too after watching the Springboks disintegrate in the second half against the Wallabies at Suncorp Stadium. This would have been a game where the whole of Australasia, and not just Australia, would have been behind the beleaguered Wallabies, and what was witnessed should have been a cause for great celebration.

“Are the Boks beatable, and if so how can it be done?” has been a question asked from the early rounds of the competition. Finally an answer has been provided, and it is not a particularly surprising one – yes, they can be beaten, and the way to do it is to beat them at their own game.

Bok skipper John Smit said after Suncorp that his men had played the wrong game in the 21-6 defeat, and doubtless there will be some of his countrymen who will contend that the Boks tried to play too much rugby at stages of the game.

But while the Wallaby kick and chase game was spot on, and there was great irony in the fact that the hosts should use the much maligned Bok tactics of earlier in the competition to beat the leading team, there was another fundamental that was even more important. For the first time in the Tri-Nations season, a team matched the Boks for physicality.

For once it was the Boks being knocked back in the collisions, for the first time it was the opposition who were getting the better of the breakdown battle, where finally some questions have been posed about the lack of physical presence of Bok fetcher Heinrich Brussow.

With alarm bells having clanged off their hinges for several weeks now in the scrums, the Boks just never had their usual platform to terrorise their opponents. To put it simply, for the first time the Wallabies did what they had promised to do before this tournament – they fronted up to the Boks physically, and did so for an entire 80 minutes.

Instead of the Wallabies looking cowed and forced into numerous mistakes like both they and the All Blacks were earlier in the Tri-Nations, it was the Boks who were made to look uncomfortable.

It was not the first time in the southern hemisphere season that this has happened. The British and Irish Lions managed to physically dominate the Boks for an hour in the second test in Pretoria in June and for the entire match in the last test in Johannesburg a week later, which was why that series was a lot closer than many anticipated it would be.

The All Blacks and Wallabies probably got the message if they watched the last test of that series in particular, because the Boks were comprehensively outplayed on that occasion. And it was the same again in Brisbane, with the losing margin of 15 points perhaps flattering a Bok team that was saved only by desperate, scrambling tackles on several occasions before Adam Ashley-Cooper finally burst the dam wall with an excellent first phase try in the 65th minute.

After that there was no way back for the Boks, with the Australians enjoying all the territorial dominance as the South Africans, encouragingly for the All Blacks, just appeared to run out of steam on what is known to be the fastest playing surface in Australia.

It was only the first defeat in five starts in the Tri-Nations season for the Boks, and if they recover to win in Hamilton they will confirm their status as the best team in the world, so this defeat in isolation need not be seen as a train-smash for Smit and his men.

What was disturbing though, particularly if you look to the future and the World Cup that is scheduled for New Zealand this time two years from now, was the fact that a side featuring so much experience and so many world class players should be so comprehensively outplayed by a team featuring five changes and an average age of just 23.

Certainly the Wallabies will feel they have something to crow about, and the second half of the Perth test, when they fought back so well, should possibly have been taken greater cognisance of than was the case. They looked to be building then, and in this latest game they hit target, with Will Genia making a massive difference at scrumhalf and Berrick Barnes dramatically improving both the kicking game and the defensive effort.

The Boks will spend most of this week on Queensland’s Gold Coast preparing for their last match. For the first time in a long time they are under real pressure, and it will be interesting to see how they handle it. The good news for them is that Bryan Habana’s injury is not as serious as first thought and he is expected to play in Hamilton.

Read more on the Tri-Nations page.

Print| More Articles