Ken Borland

The Springboks may have been conned into deviating from their strengths a bit in their two losses to the Wallabies, but their determination to build on what they did in their narrow loss to New Zealand last weekend will have been boosted by the three changes the All Blacks have made to their backline for Saturday’s Rugby Championship Test on the Gold Coast.

South Africa have spent this week stubbornly refusing to deviate from their plan despite mounting criticism from doe-eyed lovers of ball-in-hand rugby that kicking the ball away in the last 10 minutes was what cost them a 19-17 defeat at the death.

The All Blacks have changed their wings, with Sevu Reece and Rieko Ioane now set to face the aerial bombardment, and have chosen a scrumhalf with an even stronger kicking game in Brad Weber.

“We back our style and our physical presence, and we have great leaders we trust. We have full confidence in our plan and we want to rock up and play great rugby,” prop Steven Kitshoff said this week.

“We believe our DNA is good enough to win big matches, so on Saturday we want to really pitch up and play dominant rugby.”

Perhaps the key work-on for the Springboks, however, is ensuring that the chances that arise from their superb pressure game are utilised better on Saturday, especially in the closing stages. “We had a lot of opportunities and some crucial moments didn’t go our way,” Kitshoff admitted.

Sunny and warm conditions, with a bit of wind, on the Gold Coast on Saturday could also help the Springboks’ kicking game because sweat from what coach Jacques Nienaber described as “the biggest Test of the year, the same intensity as the World Cup final”, combined with sub-tropical humidity could make handling the ball when hundreds of kilogrammes of South African beef are bearing down on you rather tricky.

Nienaber also said South Africa’s strategy was conditional on how the All Blacks chose to defend. But even with three different players in their backline, New Zealand are unlikely to change from the packed frontline of 14 defenders and just one at the back that they had last weekend.

In a week in which they returned to normal, non-bubble life and played in front of a crowd for the first time since the World Cup, the Springboks seemed to have stage-fright as they slid to a 28-26 defeat at the hands of the Wallabies on the Gold Coast on Sunday.

Flyhalf Quade Cooper, playing his first Test in four years, was the hero with a 100% kicking record of  seven penalties and a conversion, including a long-range, angled penalty after the final hooter to snatch the victory.

But it was an unfocused performance by the world champions, who made basic mistakes and conceded too many penalties against a Wallabies side who were far from the weak pushovers they seemed to be against the All Blacks. They were crafty as ever in the scrums and avoided many of the physical battles by shifting the ball quickly away from the contact points.

The lineout was the only area where the Springboks enjoyed a clear advantage, and all three of South Africa’s tries, scored by hookers Bongi Mbonambi in the first half and two by Malcolm Marx in the second, came from the rolling maul.

The visitors started well, using an aerial bombardment and their lineout prowess to win two penalties for flyhalf Handre Pollard, but the Wallabies began to find weaknesses in their defence as they came on strong at the breakdowns and the Springboks started to make soft mistakes to put themselves under pressure.

One minute after captain Siya Kolisi was yellow-carded for a tip-tackle, Australia took control of the game with the opening try. There was no danger involved in Kolisi’s tackle, but referee Luke Pearce was strict when it came to sending players to the cooler, dishing out four yellow-cards in all, two to each team.

The try came when Faf de Klerk rushed up in defence as usual, but missed the tackle and excellent centre Samu Kerevi sidestepped him, creating space out wide which was quickly spotted by the Wallabies, wing Andrew Kelleway then cutting back inside to finish well.

The Springboks struck back with Mbonambi’s maul try after Australian lock Matt Philip had been yellow-carded for collapsing the drive, but Pollard had a poor night with the boot, missing three kicks either side of halftime.

Pollard knocked his second penalty of the second half over to close the gap to 14-19 as the Springboks came out energised after the break. But the Wallabies continued to play the smarter rugby and replacement scrumhalf Nic White’s brilliant kick, making use of the new 50/22 trial law, put them on attack. From there, fullback Willie le Roux’s yellow card for a deliberate knock-on stalled the visitors’ momentum and cost three points as Quade Cooper slotted his sixth successive kick at goal.

Fortunately, Australia hooker Folau Fainga’a was yellow-carded six minutes later for a no-arms tackle and the Springboks were able to maul Marx over for their second try, getting them to within one point.

And with eight minutes left Marx went over from the lineout drive again. But Damian Willemse, on for Pollard, pushed the conversion well wide to complete a miserable night from the tee for South Africa – 10 points in all being wasted.

There were a couple of crucial scrums towards the end in which the Springboks clearly dominated but were not rewarded by the referee, and then Australia wheeled the last scrum of the game, isolating replacement eighthman Jasper Wiese, who conceded the turnover penalty.

Cooper did exactly what he was brought in to do, showing the coolest of heads as he knocked the tricky penalty straight over.

Scorers

Australia – Try: Andrew Kellaway. Conversion: Quade Cooper. Penalties: Cooper (7).

South Africa – Tries: Bongi Mbonambi, Malcolm Marx (2). Conversion: Handre Pollard. Penalties: Pollard (3).

The Springboks have not beaten the Wallabies in Australia since 2013 – a five-game streak – and captain Siya Kolisi said on Saturday that his team are fully focused on rectifying that anomaly when they meet the two-time world champions in a Rugby Championship Test on the Gold Coast on Sunday.

South Africa have beaten Australia in all seven matches back on home turf dating back to 2011, so it is just getting the better of them overseas that is the problem. Kolisi could not put his finger on why that is the case, but he left no doubt as to the current world champions’ desire to claim victory on Sunday.

“You have to give credit to the Wallabies, they don’t lose a lot in Australia, against most teams, especially in Queensland. I don’t know what they do to have that record, but we are 100% focused on what we have to do. Hopefully we will do better than we did in our last game here [the Springboks lost 18-23 in Brisbane in 2018]. This is an important match for us because our record is not good when it comes to winning in Australia.

“The most important thing is for us to stick to our process, we haven’t played in three weeks so we have to make sure we are focused. We take it game-by-game, make sure we pitch up every day and we have to give Australia the respect they deserve. It’s going to be our plan against their plan, bringing that intensity, who tackles the most and who carries the ball the most,” Kolisi said.

As much as the Wallabies will be trying to speed the game up and use their dangerous backline to crack open the Springbok defence, South Africa will also be wanting good, quick ball to make sure their hefty carriers are serviced well.

“Quick ball is important for any team and if we don’t get it then it’s going to be a long day for us,” attack coach Mzwandile Stick said on Saturday. “We want to make sure that we give our big forwards front-foot ball. It’s not only Michael Hooper who slows the ball down, the Wallabies have a lot of players who apply pressure at the breakdown and we know it’s going to be a massive battle, we need to be clinical there so our No.9 is able to give quick service.

“Australia rely on quick ball too, but they are world-class and on a good day they can really punish you. Samu Kerevi is back, they have wings like Marika Koriobete who have lots of pace, and we have to make sure we don’t give Quade Cooper lots of time and space to make decisions. So we have to respect them, make sure we pitch up and play according to our strengths,” Stick said.

Faf de Klerk would be in the conversation when it comes to a World XV but the Springbok scrumhalf certainly rates the credentials of the Australian number nines that he will be up against in their Rugby Championship Test on the Gold Coast on Sunday.

Tate McDermott is the starting scrumhalf and comes from a Sevens background, so he is a lively ball-runner who definitely adds another dimension to the Wallabies attack. Reserve No.9 Nic White is more of a kicker, but also knows exactly where the tryline is, as well as being a deft off-loader in the close channels. He is also quite physical and combative.

“Tate McDermott is an exciting youngster and he will definitely threaten us around the rucks, plus Nic White is there as back-up. So it’s going to be a massive challenge for us on defence. The Wallabies are going to try and run us off our feet, so it’s going to be a huge challenge defensively.

“If you look at their recent scores, they haven’t been so good. But the way they have played has shown that if you switch off against them, then you can quickly be 14 or 21 points down. If we’re not mentally right then we’re going to come badly second. So we’re under no impression that it’s going to be easy. Defence is going to be very important and who can manage the game best,” De Klerk said.

Meanwhile, former Springbok coach Jake White, now director of rugby at the high-flying Bulls, has said playing in front of a hostile crowd is going to be an obvious hurdle for the tourists to overcome. Rugby in South Africa has not had spectators since the arrival of Covid 18 months ago.

“The one significant thing that is going to be completely different in Australia is that there’s going to be a crowd. Our guys would have forgotten what that’s like. When we got to Treviso for the Rainbow Cup final, having the home crowd in was incredibly different to what we were used to because we hadn’t done it for so long,” White said on Friday.