Match Preview - Qantas Wallabies v Springboks in Durban
August 21, 2008 - 4:24pm
Story by: ARU
Last Saturday at Newlands in Cape Town the world champion Springboks experienced a very black day.
The All Blacks took revenge for their unexpected loss in Dunedin last month with a crushing 19 - 0, 3 tries to zero, victory. It was the first time in over 100 years of Rugby between the two nations that the Springboks had failed to score a point against New Zealand at home.
Danie Craven, the late godfather of South African Rugby, would not be pleased.
After the game the Springbok coach Peter de Villiers turned to the bible for inspiration saying: “If you look at the Bible, Joseph started out in the pit and ended up in the palace.”
Where exactly the Springboks will rate on the “Joseph pit to palace” graph this weekend is anyone’s guess.
It was all set up for them last Saturday. Percy Montgomery’s 100th Test, the first Springbok ever to achieve that significant mark, Juan Smith’s 50th Test, a packed Newlands, the Tri-Nations title in their sights – and the Boks fell well short. Due mainly to their troubles at the breakdown.
Whether home or away, what has become clear in this Tri-Nations is whoever wins the contest at the breakdown, wins the Test.
The Wallabies in Sydney and Perth, the Springboks in Dunedin, the All Blacks in Auckland and now Cape Town.
Whoever comes up trumps at the collision point seems to finish ahead on the scoreboard.
For all the talk of new ideas and game-plans, the Springboks last week reverted back to their tactics of the 2007 Rugby World Cup where they opted against competing at the breakdown so they could keep the maximum number of players in the defensive line.
That may work against England under the old Laws, but not against the All Blacks under the ELVs. At times it seemed New Zealand were being given use of unlimited tackles and, as good as the Springbok defence was, no one can hold out the All Blacks with a never-ending supply of ball.
It was very different when the Springboks had the ball as captain Richie McCaw, following the lead of his old coach Robbie Deans, threw himself into every breakdown and most of the time emerged with the ball.
The statistics summed up the All Blacks dominance : Possession – All Blacks 65% to Springboks 35%, Turnovers won – New Zealand 29 to Springboks 10.
It’s very hard to remember South Africa stringing together more than three phases in the match and when, and if, they did they were repelled by committed All Blacks defence.
The Wallabies may have shown the All Blacks how to beat the Springboks, when in Perth George Smith, in one of his best games in a Wallaby jersey, completely dominated the breakdowns in Australia’s 16-9 win.
De Villiers saw no reason to panic after the 19-0 drubbing making only two changes to the starting XV for this week’s Test, both in the backs, bringing Conrad Jantjes in for Montgomery and Jongi Nokwe in for the injured Bryan Habana on the wing.
The only other change is on the bench where Joe van Niekerk comes back in to the reserve list for Danie Rossouw. This mean the Boks are perilously short on line out options if something happens to their starting locks, Andries Bekker and captain Victor Matfield, as Bakkies Botha has already been ruled out of the tournament due to injury.
Certainly the South African coach can not be accused of over-reacting. De Villiers believes South Africa’s woes at the breakdown are due more to refereeing interpretations.
"It's an unfair contest at the moment," De Villiers told the media after the loss. "You almost have to become illegal to be legal.
"It's hard to go that way because then a different referee could bring out a yellow card for your players. At the moment the players and the referee are not on the same page." IRB Referees’ boss Paddy O’Brien, understandably, did not react well to these comments.
But if De Villiers watches the tape of the game he’ll see it’s hard to win ball at the breakdown if none of your players are competing for it.
Men of Gold fans can only hope the Springboks continue the same tactics this weekend as no doubt Smith and Co will dominate the breakdowns as McCaw did last weekend. And with that much ball the Wallabies will be hard to contain.
But it would be highly surprising if the Boks did not dedicate at least a few more resources to winning possession this Saturday.
However Deans is the master of playing “to the ball” and contesting the breakdown. He perfected his breakdown-based style in his years at the Crusaders and whatever the Boks come up with, no doubt Deans will have a way of combating it.
Of course the Wallabies have had their own problems on the injury front.
News came through before the team left for South Africa that Lote Tuqiri (knee), James Horwill, Rocky Elsom (both foot) and Adam Ashley-Cooper (hand) were all struggling with injury.
And then out of the blue star scrumhalf Luke Burgess was ruled out for the rest of the Tri-Nations after an innocuous clash of knees with Peter Hynes at training, the day before the Wallabies flew out of Sydney.
But in better news this week hopes are high that Tuqiri, Horwill and even Elsom will all be fit to play with likely Drew Mitchell coming in at fullback for the hard-running Ashley-Cooper.
And Burgess’ withdrawal has opened the door for either of two hard working, long-serving scrumhalves, the Reds Sam Cordingley and the Tahs Brett Sheehan – both who will not let their country down if given the chance. By mid-week it looked like Cordingley’s greater Test experience would give him the nod for the starting spot.
Of course the Wallabies have not won in South Africa since 2000, when Captain Courageous, Stirling Mortlock, kicked a last minute penalty goal wide out to give the Wallabies that year’s Tri-Nations title.
And every year the team ventures to the Republic with high hopes only to return empty-handed once more.
So what is different this year ? Deans for one and his extraordinary record in South Africa.
He took the Crusaders to South Africa nine times in his tenure as coach from 2000 to 2008. In all they played 19 matches in South Africa – winning 11 and losing just 8. An even more positive stat is that in all nine times Deans took his team to Africa, they never once returned without a win.
The master-coach loves to tour South Africa and more than that he loves to win there.
This is a fired up and determined Wallaby side and just as the Boks will be desperate to bounce back from their dismal performance last weekend, the Men of Gold will want to redeem themselves after their 39-10 reversal in Auckland against the All Blacks.
The Wallabies also know that they need to win just one of their games in South Africa to set up a virtual “Tri-Nations Grand Final” with the All Blacks in Brisbane on September 13th.
When asked last week if they thought the Wallabies could win a Test on this tour, Men of Gold fans replying to our www.rugby.com.au poll were resounding in their belief that they can.
64.1% said the Wallabies would win at least one Test against the Springboks with 30.2% saying they thought the Wallabies would win one Test and 33.9% believing the Wallabies would win both.
And even with the Wallabies undeniably poor record in South Africa, it’s very hard not to agree with them.
After the heartbreak of recent trips to South Africa Men of Gold fans could be excused for not getting their hopes up. They can also be excused if they do.
Oh and the venue where Stirling kicked the winning goal in 2000 ? You guessed it – Durban, the venue for this Saturday’s Test. A good omen ? Maybe.
The Wallabies taking on the Springboks in Durban will be telecast live on Foxsports 1 from 10.30pm this Saturday, August 23. Kick off is at at 11pm (AEST).
Qantas Wallabies :15. Drew Mitchell (Western Force), 14. Peter Hynes (Queensland Reds), 13. Stirling Mortlock (Brumbies) captain, 12. Berrick Barnes (Queensland Reds), 11. Lote Tuqiri (NSW Waratahs), 10. Matt Giteau (Western Force), 9. Sam Cordingley (Queensland Reds). 8. Wycliff Palu (NSW Waratahs), 7. George Smith (Brumbies), 6. Rocky Elsom (NSW Waratahs), 5. Daniel Vickerman (NSW Waratahs), 4. James Horwill (Queensland Reds), 3. Matt Dunning (NSW Waratahs), 2. Stephen Moore (Queensland Reds), 1. Benn Robinson (NSW Waratahs).
Replacements: 16. Tatafu Polota-Nau (NSW Waratahs), 17. Al Baxter (NSW Waratahs), 18. Hugh McMeniman (Queensland Reds), 19. Phil Waugh (NSW Waratahs), 20. Brett Sheehan (NSW Waratahs), 21. Timana Tahu (NSW Waratahs), 22. Ryan Cross (Western Force)
South Africa:15 Conrad Jantjes (Stormers), 14 JP Pietersen (Sharks), 13 Adrian Jacobs (Sharks), 12 Jean de Villiers (Stormers), 11 Jongi Nokwe (Cheetahs), 10 Butch James (Bath, UK), 9 Fourie du Preez (Bulls), 8 Pierre Spies (Bulls), 7 Juan Smith (Cheetahs), 6 Schalk Burger (Stormers), 5 Victor Matfield (Bulls) (c), 4 Andries Bekker (Stormers), 3 CJ van der Linde (Cheetahs), 2 Bismarck du Plessis (Sharks), 1 Tendai Mtawarira (Sharks).
Replacements: 16 Adriaan Strauss (Cheetahs), 17 Brian Mujati (Stormers), 18 Joe van Niekerk (Lions), 19 Luke Watson (Stormers), 20 Enrico Januarie (Stormers), 21 Francois Steyn (Sharks), 22 Percy Montgomery (Perpignan, France).
Date: Saturday 23 August, 2008
Kick-off: 15:05 (23:05 AEST)
Venue: ABSA Stadium, Durban
Referee: Lyndon Bray (New Zealand)
Assistant Referees: Bryce Lawrence (New Zealand), Romain Poite (France)
TMO: Rob Debney (England)
