This was a seriously good win by the Wallabies over a South African side which had lost only twice in 19 Tests before stepping out at the Gold Coast on Sunday night.
Winning in tight finishes becomes part of your DNA as a team. This 28-26 win on the bell after doing the same against France in July is huge for the growth of the Wallabies.
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The Springboks showed why they are World Cup champions at times. On other occasions, they lapsed into errors, Halfback Faf de Klerk kicked the ball out on the full twice,
Lukhanyo Am couldn't ground the ball over the tryline and they lacked for attacking ideas.
So what did we learn:
1 STRENGTH AT HALFBACK
Nic White was actually the pick of the No.9s on the night after coming on for the second half.
He produced a perfect kick for a 50-22, the first in Test rugby, to gain valuable ground. He ran and he hustled.
After that strong Wallabies scrum on full-time, White was straight onto the messy ball that the Springboks tried to secure and wrestled the penalty that Quade Cooper turned into a match-winning three points.
You didn’t think we’d forget his five-star mouthguard throw to make his earlier point to the ref that he thought Willie Le Roux’s attempted intercept was a yellow card for a deliberate knock-on.
White clearly outplayed South African halfback Faf de Klerk while Tate McDermott had a mixed first half aside from his super play to get his body under centre Lukhanyo Am to prevent a try.
2 QUADE COOPER
A very classy comeback. Very good control of the game, some nice passing, no 50-50 gambles that might become wasteful turnovers and his best goalkicking in a Test match with eight-from-eight. No mistakes under pressure which is amazing considering he hadn't played a Test in four years.
Did you notice the matador style set-up is gone from his goalkicking? He struck them all so sweetly.
More time in the saddle with his new teammates and his inside ball will start clicking too.
3 THE REF WITH THE YMCA MOVES
We all had to scurry to find out who had the whistle. It was Englishman Luke Pearce.
During the half-time break, the crowd got to listen to YMCA by the Village People to keep up the mood.
Pearce looks like he’s a fan because he loves an exaggerated hand signal. His “Y” hand signal and the old hurry-up spin of the arm on the final scrum were favourites.
4 TEAM IDENTITY
The ‘Boks have theirs. It’s not for everyone but you have to admire how firmly they stick to a plan that plays to their strengths.
They could score 10 rolling maul tries off lineouts as their only tries for the rest of The Rugby Championship and still be happy if they are winning games.
In the opening minutes, they showed how hard they were going to be to beat with contestable kicks into the sky,afineFafdeKlerkboxkickanddabstoopenspace.
They did miss injured winger Cheslin Kolbe because just one or two flashes of brilliant footwork in a Test adds so much more bang to their baseline game.
World Rugby needs teams with different identities and the two All Blacks v Springboks Tests to come in Townsville and on the Gold Coast in The Rugby Championship will be beauties.
READ MORE:
THE WIN: Wallabies claim all-time victory
THE COMEBACK: Cooper proof less is more
THE STATEMENT: All Blacks dominate Argentina
5 PICK-AND-STICK
Wallabies coach Dave Rennie has shown an admirable streak to stick with players because building up cohesion is so important.
Backrower Rob Valetini is starting to reward him. Just before half-time, he made a strong run and backed up Michael Hooper to make some more metres in the same play.
Likewise, centre Len Ikitau. He's doing some solid things at outside centre and one booming left-foot kick to exit his quarter is just the sort of extra kicking option the backline needs.
Rennie’s decision to keep playing prop Taniela Tupou as a super sub has split fans.
He didn’t get on in the third Bledisloe Cup Test until the game was already lost.
Against South Africa, his big scrum presence beside fellow front-row finishers James Slipper and debutant Feleti Kaitu’u was responsible for the huge scrum shunt on full-time that turned the Test.
The jury is out on how best to use Tupou.
