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Wallabies shut down Springboks

Brad Morgan

21 July 2008

After a great win over New Zealand in Dunedin, the Springboks were beaten 16-9 by Australia in Perth in their last away match of the Tri-Nations competition. It was a disappointing end to the Boks' tour of Australasia, but they're still in good shape in the standings despite two defeats.

South Africa are notoriously difficult to beat on home soil and with five points in the bag, and two tests against Australia and one against the All Blacks to come, they will still fancy their chances of adding the Tri-Nations crown to their World Cup title. They will, however, have to play far better and produce the goods in front of their home supporters.

There is no doubt the Springboks contributed to their defeat in Perth in many ways, including poor handling and shoddy passing; their execution of the basics was not up to scratch. Most of the players would not have been happy with their individual performances.

Shone

Some Boks shone and they included Bakkies Botha, Schalk Burger, and substitutes Adriaan Strauss and "Beast" Mtawarira.

Saturday's defeat will, however, leave a sour taste in the mouths of Boks. Although they have not said that much about referee Bryce Lawrence's performance - coach Peter de Villiers indicated he couldn't say too much because he could find himself in trouble – there were clearly a number of areas of the game that the South African side was less than happy about.

Yet, some will say that the Aussies boxed smarter and played what they were allowed to play by referee Lawrence. That is a valid point.

Suggestions afterwards that teams should be allowed to meet with the referee before games seem to carry some merit as Lawrence's interpretation of the game was significantly different to that of Matt Goddard the previous week when South Africa played New Zealand; the All Blacks and Springboks had met Goddard before their clash and the match was a lot tidier.

Addressing the refereeing

Coach De Villiers intimated that the matter of the refereeing will be taken up with the International Rugby Board. He and captain Matfield, though, restrained themselves from venting their frustration at the post-match press conference where De Villiers congratulated the Wallabies.

"On the day, they out-stripped us, especially on the ground," he said. "Full credit to the Aussies, they deserved it."

Australia, it must be said, outscored the Springboks two tries to nil, with the first try in the left hand corner by Lote Tuqiri coming from probably the best movement of the game. However, as one might surmise from the score, the match was more about defence and the Australians kept South Africa out with what were at times desperate, but brilliant last-gasp tackles.

Early lead

South Africa took the lead in the game after five minutes when Francois Steyn landed a 45-metre penalty after the Australians fell onto a ball from an offside position at a ruck.

The Springboks continued to attack and launched an attack that came to naught when after a good number of phases Steyn attempted an overly-ambitious drop goal from almost the halfway line. Under pressure, he failed to find the direction and distance required.

Pierre Spies made a good break, but almost immediately the Australians turned defence into attack as Lote Tuqiri made good ground on the counter-attack.

Berrick Barnes attempted a drop kick for Australia after 20 minutes, but his ugly kick finished much closer to the left hand corner flag than the uprights.

Missed

Steyn then had an opportunity to extend South Africa's lead, but he was wide right with another long-distance effort.

While South Africa had made the early running, the signs at the rucks were worrying. Australia had blunted a good number of attacks by turning over ball. At the same time, there was an astonishing mix of gold (Australia) and green (South Africa) at the rucks where offsides positions were not being strongly policed.

With 25 minutes played, Jean de Villiers made a sharp break down the right hand side. The ball was brought back inside towards the posts, but the final pass was swatted back towards his own line by Wallaby lock James Horwill and the Aussies claimed the ball and cleared.

Three minutes later, the Boks worked their way into the Australian 22-metre area on the left. Eighthman Pierre Spies was put into a gap, but he knocked on with the tryline beckoning.

Just past the half-hour mark, Schalk Brits almost forced his way over but, with the tryline only metres away and Bryan Habana on his inside, he couldn't get his pass away properly thanks to strong Australian defence and it went forward.

Australian try

Five minutes before the break, Australia struck. From a throw-in on South Africa's 22-metre line, hooker Stephen Moore threw deep to George Smith. The ball was moved out and wing Peter Hynes broke the line. Once again the ball was moved to the left where Tuqiri was put in space and he dived over to put Australia into a 5-3 lead.

Matt Giteau couldn't slot the difficult conversion and the score remained 5-3 at half-time.

Three minutes into the second half the Australians created some space to their left. The Springbok defenders were stretched and when De Villiers, caught in two minds, was knocked down by Mortlock, the Wallaby skipper crashed over in two cover-defending tackles for the second try of the game.

Once again, Giteau couldn't convert, but Australia led 10-3.

Burger injured

Worryingly, Schalk Burger, the best of the South African forwards, was forced from the field with a neck injury with only five minutes of the half played. He was replaced by Ryan Kankowski, who slotted in at eighthman, with Spies moving to flank.

Australia, meanwhile, lost their captain, Mortlock, who left the field looking very groggy. He was replaced by Ryan Cross.

A minute later, referee Lawrence penalised South Africa at a scum and Giteau was on target with his kick to put Australia into a 13-3 lead.

Almost immediately, Butch James replied for South Africa when Nathan Sharpe was penalised for dragging Matfield down at a lineout.

SA coach De Villiers made an early move to the bench, bringing on "Beast" Mtawarira for Gurthro Steenkamp and Adriaan Strauss for his debut test in place of Brits at hooker.

Habana stopped

With 15 minutes to go, Habana was nearly in for South Africa. Cross, though, made a superb tackle, wrapping the Springbok winger up and knocking the ball out of his hands at the same time to force a knock on as Habana dived for the line.

Shortly afterwards Habana left the field with a shoulder injury and was replaced by Ruan Pienaar.

Steyn then made the score 13-9 with another penalty. Truthfully, though, it looked as if penalties were the only way in which South Africa would be able to score and they weren't getting into enough decent attacking positions to take kicks at goal.

With 10 minutes to play, Mtawarira made a fantastic break out of the Springbok 22, rounding a man on the right and charging up the field. Australia, though, once more had the answers and the promising attack was halted.

With time running out, an attempted quick throw-in landed South Africa in trouble deep in their territory and Australia were back on the attack. Rocky Elsom came close to scoring, but knocked on as he tried to force his way over.

Drop goal

Then, with only a minute left, Berrick Barnes snapped over a well-taken drop kick to increase Australia's lead to seven points.

South Africa tried to reply, but it was far too late and the Australians went on to a 16-9 victory and four Tri-Nations' points. SA picked up a single point for finishing within seven of Australia.

The Springboks next face Argentina in the Mandela Plate at Ellis Park on 9 August in a clash to commemorate former President Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday. The next three weekends in August feature consecutive Tri-Nations matches against New Zealand in Cape Town, and Australia in Durban and Johannesburg.