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First things first: the 2009 Springboks have one of the great packs in rugby history. The pressure they brought on the Wallabies in the rucks, mauls, tackled ball situations and the lineouts in the first 60 minutes of the Test at Newlands, Cape Town, forced a committed and gutsy side to make errors of judgment and skill that gave easy penalty goals to the home side.
Aside from giving away a hatful of easy penalty goals, the Wallabies played for 9 minutes late in the first half and at the beginning of the second half with only 13 men.
First George Smith was yellow-carded for silly stupidity. Then Richard Brown was sent to the sin bin for a messy mistake where his timing after making the tackle was just off.
Later on in the half, Matt Giteau was sin-binned. Then at the end of the Test, Smith was sent off the field again.
The point here is that when the Wallabies had only 13 players on the field, the Springboks could not score a try. They were, in fact, out-scored two tries to one.
One of the reasons for this try-famine (for a side with numbers on the field, field position and great possessions from the lineouts and the rucks and mauls) is that the Springboks high-ball and chase game is designed to force penalties rather than tries. Another reason, according to the Springboks coach Peter de Villiers, was that the Wallabies kept on killing the ball whenever the Springboks got a roll on.
There is an element of truth in this. Especially in the first half, the Wallabies gave away penalties rather than concede tries.
In fact, right at the end of the Test, too, Smith illegally knocked the ball from the hands of Pierre Spies while the Springboks were mounting a last attack near the tryline.
The Wallabies gave away 13 penalties and many of them were given away to stop the Springboks when they were on the rampage.
But the fact is that the Springboks backs are nowhere near the quality of the forwards. When they are forced to put together a fluent attack, they just can’t do so. A couple of phases in the backs in about all they can mount before the inevitable kick is put up into the air.
There was an interesting moment about an hour into the Test when Smith (rightly) contested a decision by the referee Alain Rolland. The acting Wallaby captain (Stirling Mortlock was off the field with an injured knee) pointed out to the referee that the Springboks had sealed off a ruck forcing the Wallabies to come in from the side to get to the ball.
‘I didn’t see the Springboks player but I did see the Wallaby player,’ Rolland said.
Alas, this sort of mistake was repeated by Rolland all match. When a Springbok illegally charged a Wallaby penalty kick, Rolland allowed the infraction by saying that play wasn’t effected.
The Springboks conned some penalties from scrums, even when they were shoved off the ball.
The Wallabies were pulled up for forward passes that weren’t, for incorrect feeds to the scrums despite the Springboks doing the same, for hands on in the rucks when the Springboks were sealing off rucks and mauls with impunity.
The complaint that the Springboks don’t play much or any rugby (a point I’ve made myself) needs to be put into context too.
For the first half, at least, before they ran out of gas after three consecutive hard Tests, the Springboks played a shrewd game of counter-attacks from the Wallaby kicks.
The big runners made in-roads through the Wallaby defence and then a couple of the backs tried to flash through the gaps created, before penalties were conceded to them.
After the first three Tri-Nations Tests in South Africa, it needs to be stated that the Springboks were too good for the All Blacks and for the Wallabies. The intriguing question is whether this dominance can be carried through to the Tests in Australia and New Zealand.
Last season the Springboks defeated the All Blacks at Carisbrook for the first time since 1921. They lost the other Tests in New Zealand and Australia. My guess is that the Springboks would be happy to win one of the three Tests this season out of South Africa.
If they do this, or go better and win two Tests, their status as one of the greatest of all Springboks sides will be confirmed.
So far in the 2009 Tri-Nations the home side has won all four matches.
You’d think that if this pattern is to be broken, the Springboks are the side to do this.
But will it be a case, as so often in the past, that the Springboks are too good in South Africa and not good enough out of Africa?