The sheer gulf between the teams in the first Test was not borne out on the scoreboard. The 26-point margin in the 33-7 Boks win over the Wallabies was an equal record from South Africa on Australian soil – but it could have been so much worse.
Only South Africa going down to 13 men late in the game gave the teams a sense of parity, and allowed Australia to break a duck they deserved to carry to stumps. And while South Africa went to the break leading 21-0, it could have been double that.
How weird it was to see them butcher a four man on one opportunity out wide as Willie le Roux selfishly stepped back inside and was brought down by Andrew Kellaway. Never mind. They waltzed across soon after.
That the Boks would be too strong was well forecasted. Planet Rugby’s combined team published the day before the Test had 14 Boks and a lone Wallaby, Rob Valetini. In retrospect Planet Rugby may have been a little too positive about Australia’s relative strength.
What do we expect, with rugby union now the sixth most popular sport in Australia after the other three footies, cricket and breakdancing?
There were some similarities between the Wallabies and Olympic celeb Rachael ‘Raygun’ Gunn – look no further than the awful/hilarious moment poor Noah Lolesio thundered into his teammate Tom Wright as he fielded a high kick. It was rugby, but not on the same level as their opposition.
Not even Joe Schmidt was surprised that the Wallabies lost emphatically. And could he have done a better job to prepare them – or is that really the best we can expect from that 23?
“They’re an incredibly powerful side, experienced side and they won the physical battle today, their breakdown was really strong and they dominated possession and territory in that first half which saps the strength out of the boys a little bit,” said Schmidt. “But I was proud of the way the team hung in there, fought back, lost the second half 12-7.
“It would have been great to get a little bit more out of the game but we’ve got a benchmark and it wasn’t a massive shock to us as to where the Springboks would be and it’s somewhere that we’re going to have to build toward.”
Having gone 3-0 with wins over Wales and Georgia you don’t have to squint too hard to see a 3-6 in the middle distance leading into the Spring Tour, considering the Wallabies ‘easier’ fixtures will be in Argentina against a team high on beating the All Blacks.
This week the Wallabies had so many rocks they resembled rubble. The diamonds, fittingly for that country, were all from South Africa.
Injuries are not going to help. Neither is Rugby Australia’s ludicrous self-imposed limit on who can and can’t play for the national team that was again exposed by South Africa’s ‘best available wherever they play’ selection. (Man of the match at Suncorp, Pieter-Steph Du Toit, plays club rugby in Japan).
(Photo by Matt Roberts/Getty Images)
Interestingly, while the front row was blown to smithereens by the Boks, the second rowers Lukhan Salakaia-Loto and Nick Frost emerged with some credit. LSL carried well but still missed seven tackles – a rocks and diamonds display.
Valetini was right up there, too – but the harsh reality is the Wallabies were dominated across the turf and in the coaching box.
“In that first half we just defended for the majority of time and when you’re defending for that long, they’re going to score points – the challenge for us is to put more of our game on them and see what we can do with ball in hand,” LSL said afterwards.
But there’s the rub. Schmidt’s tactics were basic – a short kicking game and narrow attack – while Rassie Erasmus brought some ingenuity, and wow factor, to Suncorp.
He had Cheslin Kolbe standing in at scrum half and throwing into a lineout, and forwards in wide channels to exploit the Wallabies’ narrowness. And then there was the double take-inducing double pod lineout that led to a first half try as the Boks blazed right through the Wallabies’ confused maul defence.
Schmidt is doubling up as the Wallabies attack coach – and it’s an area that looked, well rocky. As Erasmus pointed out, Schmidt has only had four Tests with the team. He can’t be blamed for the dire state of the national team, ninth in the rankings, but what can he do, if anything, to fix it?
“Joe Schmidt’s a brilliant coach. I was certainly very nervous before this game because I never knew what Joe will be cooking up,” said Erasmus.
Is it possible to serve up a Michelin star meal if the only ingredient is 23 boiled spuds?
Schmidt was asked about the narrowness and ineffectual kicking afterwards, and he explained it away as game state rather than tactical.
“I think our breakdown wasn’t good enough so then if you don’t get the breakdown right you don’t kick on your terms and it’s hard to play to the width because you’re kind of coming back to your breakdown,” said Schmidt.
“You can’t play because they’ll cut you off so you’ve got to be able to get going forward somehow. We got going forward a couple of times and there was a foot that kicked the ball out there just before half time which was disappointing because something at half time would have given us a little bit of encouragement I think.”
Four Tests in and Schmidt should have a better idea now of if the Wallabies can execute his plans. On Saturday they could not.
(Photo by Matt Roberts/Getty Images)
“You’re two-time world champions. You do what you do well,” said former Wallaby Morgan Turinui of how the Springboks handled Australia’s tactics.
“They’ve found expansive width in their game. But if you get your short-kicking game and your tactics wrong as the Wallabies have, you’re handing opportunities, territory, and a lethal forward pack. Too much ball, really.
The contrast between 20-Test Noah Lolesio and starting debutant Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu was stark and, for Wallabies fans, rather dispiriting.
Noah Lolesio. (Photo by Morgan Hancock/Getty Images)
Sure Lolesio had to battle behind a well beaten pack, and alongside a No.9 in Jake Gordon who kicked often (and poorly). But the best fly-halves bend the game to their will, instead of getting dragged along the bottom of the ocean as the big waves toll in.
In Feinberg-Mngomezulu, South Africa look to have unearthed a 5 carat diamond. He muffed his first attempt at goal and the Aussies in the Suncorp Stadium crowd laughed at him. He beamed a big smile in perfect response, then set about silencing them. There were crisp passes, perfectly timed longer ones, galloping linebreaks and he found his goal kicking radar.
Kurt Lee-Arendse and Kolbe brought all the thrills – and the former’s try, skipping through a bemused Australian pack and a feeble tackle attempt from Allan Alaalatoa summed up the difference between the teams and their levels of cohesion.
The Wallabies head to Perth – and another home venue that will be dominated by away fans – with it all to do and key players set to be ruled out.
“Physicality – everyone’s going to be sick of us saying it – but you’ve got to turn up with that,” said former skipper Michael Hooper.
That seems the least, and probably the most, we can hope for.
Tony Harperhttps://https://ift.tt/YQiXoJF Joe actually make a difference, or is that really all we can expect from the Wallabies?
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