The Springboks’ cloak of invincibility was torn to shreds in Perth on Sunday as the Wallabies put a world of hurt on the world’s No 1 team. CLINTON VAN DER BERG reports.
Australia played with power and purpose, getting in among Bok faces and causing mayhem in defence.
In the past three decades, they’ve seldom managed to match the Boks for pure power, relying instead on being smarter and more tactically astute.
Sunday was the same. They just about held their own in the scrums, but their attack was in a class of its own. Even when the Boks tried to stem the tide – emptying their bench in the 48th minute – little changed as the Wallabies tore into them.
The effect was savage. Tackles were missed, the fabled scramble defence went haywire and there was a very real sense of chaos amid the world champions. Headless chickens everywhere.
Astonishingly, the 42 points the Boks conceded is the second most in 96 Tests against Australia.
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There were mitigating factors, not least the patchwork composition of the starting XV and the reality that several hadn’t played since July, but the dropoff was nonetheless alarming.
Not even the SOS to players like Malcolm Marx, Jasper Wiese and Ox Nché had any significant impact. The Boks were blown away.
Australia have now won three of eight fixtures against coach Rassie Erasmus’ Boks, and they’ll be happy with that return given that they have never rated higher than South Africa in that time.
The prevailing narrative after the conclusion of the recent series against New Zealand was how unjust, and foolish, it was that the Springboks and All Blacks would likely meet in the World Cup quarter-finals next year.
But on this form, and the very apparent trajectory the Wallabies are on under coach Les Kiss, who’s to say the Wallabies won’t spring an upset against the All Blacks in their pool match next October? That would change everything.
This suggestion might have sounded sacrilege before Sunday, but the manner in which Australia dismantled the Boks suggests that they’ll back themselves against anyone at a home World Cup. And have the ammunition to do it.
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There won’t be any panic for the Boks after this. And nor should there be. But there must be a reckoning as to why things fell apart so catastrophically.
Photo: James Worsfold/Getty Images
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The Springboks’ cloak of invincibility was torn to shreds in Perth on Sunday as the Wallabies put a world of hurt on the world’s No 1 team, writes @ClintonV
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