The Springboks could not seal the deal and win the Tri-Nations on Saturday against the Wallabies at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane. The Boks lost 21 - 6.

Although the Boks might have quibbles over the refereeing of Englishman Wayne Barnes they cannot argue that they were well beaten by a quicker, fitter more focussed Wallaby side.

After a week in which they were lambasted by their media George Smith’s re-jigged combination turned up determined to match the Springboks’ physicality and succeeded admirably as they scored the only two tries of the match and kept the Sprinboks scoreless in the second half.

All the changes made by Robbie Deans — especially Tatafu Polota-Nau at hooker, David Pocock on the flank and Berrick Barnes at inside centre — worked a treat as the Wallabies gave their Kiwi coach, who celebrated his 50th birthday on Friday, the perfect present.

For the Springboks it was a case of the chickens coming home to roost as the pessimists, who had cautioned against the unrestrained acclaim being heaped on John Smith’s team, received plenty of justification.

The Springbok scrum, again, creaked against a nation not known for scrummaging with Bismarck du Plessis time and again popping out of the formation like a jack-in-the-box, the substitutes, again, failed to crank up the impetus and this time there was no big lead to mask the usual final-quarter fade-out.

With the Tri-Nations in their grasp the Boks gave a disappointingly flat performance of too many handling errors, players becoming isolated or allowing the ball to be exposed while a lot of their kicks were either too deep or of the aimless up-the-middle variety that were easily dealt with by the Wallabies.

One got the impression that the Boks did not have a clear game-plan in mind — whether to run of play for territory — and the kick-and-chase they do so well was hampered by Bryan Habana having to leave the field because of injury and the absence of JP Pietersen.

The Wallabies by contrast were grimly determined and prepared to push the envelope at the breakdowns to knock the Boks off stride. They fell over the ball, entered in the side, lay in the way and were allowed to get away with it by referee Barnes, resulting in Fourie du Preez constantly being roughed up.

The “in-your-face-mate!” attitude of the Wallabies and tactic to move received kicks quickly wide had the Boks rattled from the start.

In the end Wallaby lock Mark Chisholm’s pre-match querying of the Boks’ fitness received some validation as they clinched victory with late tries while Matt Giteau and Berrick Barnes gave Smit’s men a taste of their own aerial bombardment — which, surprise, surprise, the Brisbane crowd seemed to find hugely entertaining!

The Springbok lineout was, as usual, supreme and their defence outstanding – as evidenced by their preventing three tries with the ball either over or hovering over the goal line — but such backs-to-the-wall heroics also signified the supremacy of the Wallabies.

The Wallabies scored the only tries through Adam Ashley-Cooper and James O’Conner (the youngster grabbing a loose ball to sprint away even though it seemed it had been knocked down by Rocky Elsom) while Lachie Turner, Matt Giteau (after a suicidal inside pass by Adi Jacobs) and Will Genia were denied by superb tackles from Habana, Fourie and Du Preez.

The Wallabies, who immediately made their intentions clear by twice running from their own goal line, drew first blood as Giteau took advantage of the match official’s spate of penalties against the Boks to kick two penalties, on either side of Turner being tackled into touch in the corner by Habana, to lead 6-0 after 27 minutes.

The Springboks seemed to be of a mind that they merely needed to go through the motions to eventually wear down the Australians but either lacked the accuracy or made wrong decisions to fail to make their incursions tell.

Morne Steyn, whose eventual tally of six points allowed him to register the quickest century of points in Springbok history (8 Tests), slotted a dropped goal (which was jeered by the Suncorp faithful) to make it 6-3 after 28 minutes but Giteau replied with one of his own (which was cheered) to make it 9-6 to the Wallabies at the break.

After the re-start the Wallabies continued to display greater urgency with the Boks surprisingly failing to tie up the ball and play the touchlines in an effort to put a brake on the frenetic pace which was suiting the home-side.

A break-out by Elsom up the middle was halted in front of the Boks posts and from the inevitable penalty against a side falling back Genia tapped the ball to himself and darted for the line. The new boy scrumhalf dived over in the grasp of Heinrich Brüssow and Du Preez but video replays showed that the latter had managed to rip the ball out of his grasp.

Genia’s incisiveness had the effect of galvanising a Wallaby team who were starting to flag and with the Boks often getting on the wrong side of referee Barnes, Smith’s youngsters were able to seize back the initiative.

After 60 minutes with the difference still only three points it was still anyone’s game to win but the Wallabies were more attuned to the old rugby cliché of “wanting it most.”

Ironically the surge to victory co-incided with the arrival of SA’s subs. Schalk Burger and Danie Rossouw replaced Brüssow and Botha in the 59th minute, Burger was immediately heavily dumped by Ashley-Cooper and the Giteau, on the counter, sent a grubber bobbling towards the Boks’ left-hand corner.

Jacobs, who came on in the 30th minute to replace Habana, came across to grab the ball, managed to stay in-field but then inexplicably hurled the ball back to try to spark a counter-attack. Instead Giteau leapt to grab it and it was only the quick reaction and strength of Fourie that prevented a try as the big centre smashed the little flyhalf into touch.

The Boks however were flustered. An untidy lineout, Morne Steyn not finding touch and the Wallabies were able to carry the ball back into an attacking position. From a scrum Genia broke wide, Barnes drifted before throwing a miss-out pass, Drew Mitchell drew Jean de Villiers and Ashley-Cooper blasted through a massive hole that opened inside Fourie, with the cover defence nowhere in sight, to sprint in at the posts.

Giteau’s conversion made it 16-6 after 66 minutes and the Boks’ dream of an unbeaten Tri-Nations was starting to fade and then evaporate as James O’Connor drove in the final nail.

Burger failed to hold a high kick from the young fullback, the Boks tried to make something out of nothing by flinging the ball around, Fourie du Preez tried to jink his way out of trouble, the ball went to ground (seemingly off Elsom’s hand) and O’Connor was home free for the clinching try as he snatched it up.

Giteau, who had also failed with an earlier penalty attempt, missed the conversion or the margin of victory might have been more emphatic but the Wallabies were nevertheless full value for lowering the colours of Springbok side who seemed to have been lulled into believing their own extravagant Press.

And the upshot of the defeat means the Boks have handed the All Blacks an outside chance to snatch the Tri-Nations title. With no bonus points the Boks remained on 17 log points which leaves the All Blacks, on eight, with the goal of scoring two five-point wins in their remaining two games against the Boks in Hamilton next Saturday and the Wallabies in Wellington the following weekend.

There are of course other permutations but the most uncomplicated is that the Boks, now stripped of their invincible tag, must rise up and beat the All Blacks at the Waikato Stadium to leave no doubt or have it taken out of their hands and have to wait for the outcome of the last game between the All Blacks and a Wallaby side who picked up even more injuries in Brisbane.

Scorers were:

Australia (9) 21: Tries by Adam Ashley-Cooper (62 min), James O’Conner (75 min). Matt Giteau kicked two penalties, a dropped goal and a conversion.

South Africa (6) 6: Morne Steyn kicked a penalty and a dropped goal.

Source: supersport.co.za

Pic: rugby365.com

Tags: Springboks, wallabies