Springboks retain Mandela plate
Brad Morgan
25 July 2005
The Springboks held on to the Nelson Mandela Challenge Plate after a rousing 33-20 victory over the Wallabies at a pulsating Ellis Park at the weekend.
Playing in front of the former President, and in celebration of his eighty-seventh birthday, the Boks produced a massive turnaround in form following their 30-12 defeat in Sydney two weeks ago.
Coach Jake White and his fellow selectors made numerous changes to the starting line-up for the return leg match, including selecting six black players - a new high for a Springbok side. They were well rewarded.
It was a game that went exceptionally well for South Africa, and it helped the Springboks remain unbeaten at Ellis Park against the Wallabies since 1963.
Early lead
In the second minute of the contest Percy Montgomery put the green and gold in front, slotting the first of what would be seven successful kicks out of seven on the day.
Australia drew
level after 10 minutes when Matt Giteau knocked over a penalty to put their first points on the board.
Four minutes later, with the Wallabies putting South Africa under pressure, Jean de Villiers turned the tide when he intercepted a pass from Stephen Larkham to George Gregan and raced away to score from 60 metres out.
Montgomery was on target with the conversion, putting the Boks 10-3 in front.
Four minutes later Montgomery increased the pressure with another penalty to put South Africa 10 points clear at 13-3.
Turned defence into points
From the restart Australia swung back on to the attack, but the Boks again turned defence into points when Andre Pretorius intercepted an attempted pass from Stirling Mortlock to Lote Tuqiri deep in the South African half.
He charged away and, just when it seemed he would be caught inside the Australian 22-metre area, he flung a beautifully judged pass inside to Bryan Habana, steaming up
on his inside, who crossed for his tenth try in just eight tests.
Montgomery converted from in front of the uprights to leave South Africa in front by an astounding 20-3 after only 23 minutes.
Once again, Australia came back hard at the Springboks and captain George Gregan recognised that his team needed a try to galvanize them into business as he opted on more than one occasion to run penalties instead of taking a shot at goal.
John Smit and company defended desperately as half time approached, determined to keep the wave after wave of Wallaby attacks from crossing the Springbok tryline.
However, after one transgression too many, Breyton Paulse was shown the yellow card, after referee Steve Walsh had warned South Africa against deliberate foul play, which had resulted in a string of penalties against the side.
Australian try
Two minutes later, in the thirty-eighth minute, David Lyons finally drove over for Australia's
first try. Matt Giteau was wide with the conversion.
Then, in injury time of the first half, Montgomery gave South Africa a nice boost just before the half time whistle, knocking over another kick to put the home team 23-8 ahead at the break.
At the start of the second period, Jake White brought on Schalk Burger for Solly Tyibilika and Fourie du Preez for Ricky Januarie. Burger, though, wasn't on the field for long before he found himself banished to the sin bin for 10 minutes.
He was caught off balance as he attempted to make a tackle on flanker Rocky Elsom. He instinctively reached out, but caught Elsom in the face and referee Walsh deemed the attempted tackle to be reckless, but not intentional. It cost the Boks 10 minutes with 14 men.
Fine work
South Africa, though, were the next to score after fine work again by De Villiers, who completely justified the calls by people for him to start at inside centre with a superb
performance.
Working nicely with flyhalf Andre Pretorius, De Villiers made a lovely break, slipping out of a few tackles before passing out to Jaque Fourie, who was backing up well. Fourie raced away from the defence to crash over next to the uprights and put South Africa 28-8 clear.
Montgomery slotted the simple conversion to increase the advantage to 22 points at 30-8.
In the sixty-fifth minute he was again on target, his seventh success in a row increasing south Africa's lead to 33-8.
Rang the changes
White rang the changes in the final 15 minutes, giving Wayne Julies, Albert van den Berg, Hanyani Shimange and Lawrence Sephaka runs. It did break the momentum of the Springboks somewhat, but the game was already won.
Australia continued fighting to the end, and in the eighty-first minute Stephen Larkham dotted down their second try under the uprights after being set up by Wendall Sailor.
Right before the final
whistle Jeremy Paul forced his way over for Australia's third try, but only after Bryan Habana had stopped Sailor from scoring what seemed to be a certain try with tremendous speed and a super tackle.
The missed conversion by Stirling Mortlock left South Africa convincing 33-20 winners.
The crowd, who were in great voice all afternoon, rejoiced wildly as the Springboks again responded to Madiba magic to put on a great show in front of the former President.
Outstanding
A number of Boks enjoyed outstanding outings:
Percy Montgomery was a wonderful calming influence at the back and his kicking at goal was superb. Andre Pretorius gave the backline plenty of impetus from flyhalf, and kicked well out of hand. At scrumhalf, Ricky Januarie was lively and provided clean, smart service in arguably his best match in the green and gold.
Juan Smith was superb on the flank, linking up wonderfully with the backs, while Joe van Niekerk
enjoyed a better game than he has played in a long time.
Bakkies Botha, after all the criticism leveled at him in the wake of the Boks' loss in Sydney, responded with an excellent and industrious all-round performance, while loosehead prop Gurthro Steenkamp proved a handful for the Aussies in the scrums and a powerhouse on the drive in open play. SA captain John Smit led the side with distinction.
However, my man of the match, and the choice of many, was Jean de Villiers. He was outstanding at inside centre, defending impeccably while causing the Wallabies numerous headaches on offence. He showed the selectors just what a skilful number-12 can bring to a team, and after that performance it would be surprising to see De Wet Barry selected in the position next time out.
This weekend coming, the two teams have to do it all again. This time they meet at Loftus Versfeld in the Tri-Nations in the third of four clashes between the two sides this year.
If Saturday's
showing was anything to go by, fans of rugby could be in for another exciting afternoon's entertainment.
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