Rampaging reversal! Boks turns tables at altitude.

July 25, 2005

The South Africa Springboks silenced critics by soundly defeating the Australia Wallabies at Johannesburg’s Ellis Park on Saturday. The turnaround comes on the heels of a humiliating loss to those same Wallabies only a week earlier in Sydney.

The knives were certainly out for the Boks after getting stuffed 30-12 in the first Test of the Nelson Mandela Challenge Plate, and as bad as the score-line looked, the try tally was even worse, favoring the Wallabies five tries to nil.

Having watched that first Test a pair of times, the game was much closer than the press reports would suggest.

Yes, the Boks missed a lot of tackles. Yes, the Boks looked bereft of imagination on attack.

But the Boks also won a ton of possession, managed to hold onto that possession and recycle the ball for painfully long periods, forcing the Wallabies into penalties and capitalizing upon them.

If it hadn’t been for a rough patch in the game’s 2nd quarter, when the Boks were pressuring the Okkers and piling ruck upon ruck into Australian territory, only to see the ball spill forward and the Wallabies run down the track for easy scores, the game could have been extremely close. The Boks owned the games’ 2nd half, as the Wallabies committed themselves to defense and gave away penalties rather than tries -- it was smart, winning rugby from the Wallabies, but also hid some potential weaknesses.

In fact, had Bok lock Bakkies Botha not dropped a lead-pipe cinch 7-pointer over the Aussie goal-line with the Boks trailing 25-12 and ten minutes remaining, they would almost certainly have made for a tight conclusion, as the Wallabies were on the back foot. As it was, Botha’s error just magnified how badly things were going for South Africa, and their momentum suddenly drained, the Aussies ran away with another easy try against the run of traffic and extended the score to a whopping 30-12.

Humiliating, yes. The Boks have a proud history and their fans deserve better than that. But anyone who writes off the Boks when the pressure is on, doesn't know their international rugby. Here was a Bok team playing terribly, going down to a smashing score on the road where they haven’t traveled well for the better part of a decade, and yet still in with a shout with ten minutes remaining.

So the Boks returned home with plenty to prove. Coach Jake White got out his axe and rang the changes. Even better – they had history on their side. The Wallabies have not beaten South Africa on Johannesburg’s high veldt since 1963. And the emotion was certainly there too.

The Boks needed a win to retain the Challenge Plate, and who better to motivate them than the presence of the great man himself, Nelson Mandela celebrating a birthday with a huge cake in front of the home side and fans. Mandela came out wearing the number 46664 on his shirt, his prisoner number from his 30 years locked up at Robben Island, and the Springboks all wore the same number on their sleeves.

Let’s just say South Africa was fired up, and the inspiration (and perhaps altitude) proved wonders as the Boks tarred-and-feathered the Wallabies 33-20. The half-time score was a commanding 23-8 and with twenty minutes remaining in the Test, the Boks were up 33-8, and the Wallabies played out the contest for a loss with respectability.

So, the Boks retain the Plate and now look forward to yet another clash with these same Wallabies next Saturday in the first leg of the annual Tri-Nations Championship.

This years’ contest looks to be the tightest to predict since the competition started a decade ago. The Boks are the defending champs – but their win last year wasn’t exactly convincing, more like splitting hairs, as they were awarded the trophy on bonus-points in a tie-breaker. All three teams finished out with a 2-2 record, each team winning their home tests and conceding on the road.

With the Tri-Nations now in front of us, rugby fans are pondering how the next few weeks will play out . . .

Are the All Blacks as good as the form they showed in their crushing 3-0 sweep of the British Lions? (Or were the Lions even worse than we imagined?)

Can the Springboks play consistent rugby and string together big Test performances, or will we see the same disinterested Bok team that stuttered in their first tests against France and Australia the past month?

And lastly, what of the Wallabies? Last week they looked every bit the measure of the All Blacks. But one wonders if they are over their psychological altitude hoodoo –- next week they play the Boks again at altitude, this time in Pretoria. Can Stephen Larkham play as badly as he did at Ellis Park two tests in a row? Will hooker Jeremy Paul duplicate his woeful line-out throws? Can the Wobblies expect to get past quality international sides without a frontline goal-kicker? Are old age and injuries finally catching up? And will the recent bar fracas with scrummie Matt Henjak packed home and star wingers Lote Tuquiri and Wendell Sailor suspended prove to be a distraction or rally the team?

Enquiring minds want to know… Until then, get ready for some Titanic rugby clashes in the weeks ahead.