Wallabies sound a loud warning
by Gavin Rich | 24 July 2010 (15:00)
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| © Gallo Images |
Australia sent out an unambiguous message about how seriously their challenge should be taken at next year’s World Cup when their young and inexperienced team thoroughly outplayed the Springboks 30-13 in a Vodacom Tri-Nations test at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium on Saturday.
Live scoring
In the end a loss in Wallaby intensity in a sloppy second half saw the try count squared at two apiece, and the difference on the scoreboard was the penalty goals slotted by the Australian duo of Matt Giteau and James O’Connor.
But if anyone points to that as an indication that there wasn’t much between these teams it would be disingenuous -- from the opening 10 minutes it was obvious that the Wallabies were just several steps quicker and smarter than a Bok team that struggled to keep pace.
There was another yellow card early in the game, with referee George Clancy going on the assistant referee’s recommendation by sending Jaque Fourie for an early 10 minute rest for a fourth minute tip tackle. The Boks are sure to complain about it, but the reality is that anyone who has watched top rugby in the last while would know that referees do come down harshly on that kind of tackle.
Later in the game Wallaby flyhalf Quade Cooper was carded for a similar tackle, so it wasn’t as if this was an area where the referees were inconsistent. The yellow card handed in the second half to BJ Botha for lying over the ball on the wrong side was inconsistent as David Pocock had been allowed to get away with a far more cynical version of the same crime when the Boks were attacking towards the end of the first.
In any event, losing a centre does not quite have as big an impact on the game early on as losing a lock, as they did in the last two tests, and the Boks did well to prevent the Wallabies from scoring in the 10 minutes that Fourie was off the field.
But it made no difference whether Fourie, who by the way turned in an excellent individual performance, was on the field or off it, and if anything, the Wallabies looked better when it was 15 against 15.
Pace was their key ingredient, but they also played an impressive direct form of rugby, with the locks and skipper Rocky Elsom being used to power through the middle, where Will Genia was also outstanding.
As with the first two matches of the tour, the Boks' first time tackling was woeful, although that said, they did have some good scramble to thank for the fact that the Wallabies did not score more than just the solitary Drew Mitchell try in the first half.
As it turned out, the first Australian points came just after Fourie was reintroduced to play, the Boks going off-sides at a ruck and Matt Giteau punishing them with a successful kick. Morne Steyn made it three-all three minutes later, and then the Boks did have a legitimate complaint two minutes later when the referee adjudged that the ball wasn’t out when Bryan Habana came around a ruck to poach an Aussie ball.
A few minutes earlier the Wallabies had got away with it when they did it to the Boks, so you could understand why Habana walked away shaking his head. Giteau was on target to take the Wallabies three points ahead, and it was a lead they never relinquished after that.
Two more penalties took the Wallabies to 12-3 ahead, and they were nearly further in front when O’Connor went over in the corner but the TMO rightly adjudged a forward pass in the movement (it looked as though O’Connor touched the line before he grounded the ball anyway).
Bok skipper John Smit elected not to kick for goal when Pocock was penalised for the aforementioned infringement in the run up to half time. It was probably the right decision as by then it was clear the Boks would need tries if they were going to win the game.
However, the South Africans were right if they felt aggrieved that Pocock wasn’t given his marching orders, and they would have felt even more put out had they known that Botha was going to be sent for a far more innocuous offence later in the game.
But instead of drawing back a few points, the Boks found themselves thwarted in their attempts to bash their way over the line by an excellent Wallaby defensive line that closed up space extremely quickly, and in no time at all the Australians were back in Bok territory.
It was from there that they launched a multi-phase attack which just seemed like wave after wave of gold jerseys surging towards the Bok line, with the ball eventually going wide to bounce off a Springbok player and for Mitchell to happily grab it on about the fourth attempt and dot down.
Mistakes early in the second half saw the Wallaby lead stretched to 20 points by the 48th minute, and after that it was just a question of how much the Boks would lose by. Fourie made up for his misdemeanour by rounding off a long period of South African pressure during the time that Cooper was away in the bin, and then the Boks surged impressively over the line with eight minutes to go from an attacking lineout for try No 2.
A victory remained a long shot, but a consolation bonus point seemed a possibility, but even that was put out of reach when Genia surged through a non-existent Bok defensive line around the fringes to end any debate.
It means the Springboks come home with not even a solitary log point from their three weeks in Australasia -- a sobering reality for a team that so comprehensively won last year’s tournament. Here is another sobering reality -- since the end of last year’s Tri-Nations, the only top five nation that the Boks have beaten in six matches was France in Cape Town.
Scorers:
Australia - Tries: Drew Mitchell, Will Genia. Conversion: James O'Connor. Penalties: Matt Giteau (5), O' Connor.
South Africa - Try: Jaque Fourie, Guthro Steenkamp. Penalty: Morne Steyn.
Read more on the Tri-Nations page.
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