Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus said after his team’s 30-22 win over the Wallabies at DHL Stadium on Saturday that nothing had changed - his team would still need to win twice against New Zealand away to retain their Castle Lager Rugby Championship title.
Actually, something has change subsequent to him speaking. In keeping with the latest trend of making a week seem like a long time in rugby, the All Blacks were beaten by Argentina in Argentina for the first time. The Kiwis were fortunate to get away with a bonus point after kicking a last gasp penalty to lose by less than seven (29-23) in a game in Buenos Aires where they were comprehensively outplayed, particularly in the second half.
It was a calm, measured and controlling performance from a Pumas team that perhaps, a bit like the Boks, underlined the benefit of having had a hard game, and a learning opportunity out of defeat, the previous week.
With the Boks having been denied any log points in Johannesburg last week, where they lost 38-22, the bonus points picked up by the All Blacks and Wallabies keep them marginally ahead of the world champions on the Rugby Championship log. However, there is nothing in it, and given the competitiveness of the teams in the competition this year, there are no games you can predict a winner with any certainty.
ONE WIN IN NEW ZEALAND MIGHT NOW BE ENOUGH
That means that one win in New Zealand, instead of two, might now be enough for the Boks, particularly given that Argentina opting to host their “home game” against the Boks in London does give the South Africans a bit of an advantage. In the sense that the Allianz Stadium (Twickenham) is likely to be more of a home away from home, given the huge expat community in England, for the Boks than for Argentina.
No-one, least of all Erasmus, will pretend that the Bok bounce back in Cape Town from the defeat at Emirates Airlines Park was convincing, and a much improved Wallaby team will look back at the game as a missed opportunity to complete a rare double on South African soil. Had James O’Connor kicked the conversion for their third try to take the lead with time winding down on the clock, the momentum would have been with Australia and, as they looked to be finishing strongly, they would have had a good chance of closing out the win.
But as they were still behind they had to continue to chase in the eight minutes remaining, and sure enough the Boks caught them and forced the mistake in their own half that gave them the opportunity to set up Eben Etzebeth for the game’s match clinching try.
Winning the big moments was something that the Boks were renowned for, at least until last week, so if you look at the Emirates Airlines Park wakeup call as a one-off you could say there is a trend that is continuing.
FAR FROM PERFECT
Not that we should be completely sure that the loss in Johannesburg was a complete one-off or aberration in terms of exposing the South African team’s vulnerabilities.
There were more than 30 tackles missed in the game by the Boks, which is way too many, and by Wallaby coach Joe Schmidt’s count, there were six clean line-breaks that went against them. Had the underfoot conditions not been slowed down by the rain in the buildup, the Boks could well have been punished more than they were by an admittedly electrifying Australian back division that on this tour has underlined in no uncertain terms that the Wallabies are on the climb again.
“The highlight for us in this game was the scoreboard. We didn’t underestimate Australia, we know how hard they are to beat, and had O’Connor not missed those points through kicks, we know it could have been a different result,” said Erasmus.
“But the win means a lot to us. The loss last week would have taken away a bit of our belief, as losses always do, so the thing today was to win and not let them get a bonus point. Which we did. We always had to go to New Zealand and win two games there to win the Championship and that hasn’t changed.”
GOOD DRY RUN FOR WHAT COMES NEXT
Well, it has, although the Boks won’t be wanting just one win in New Zealand - they will be determined to use the trip and make a point by winning both games, something that will quieten the growing disaffection of South Africans towards their team’s performance that Erasmus and his players will be well aware of.
And in that sense, the fact the Wallabies were so good on this trip, and the style of play they employed in scoring nine tries to six and picking up five log points to four across the two games, might have made the games in Johannesburg and Cape Town the perfect buildup to new Zealand.
In the years since South Africa stopped playing in Super Rugby there have been occasions when the Boks have looked like they needed to make a bit of an adjustment back to the pace of the Antipodean teams (just like the opposition have had to adjust to the higher physicality), but that would now have happened in South Africa and the Boks will be more ready after facing the Wallabies for what they will face in Auckland just under a fortnight from now.
“I think we brought much more balance to our game but we made a lot of handling errors again and we felt we missed out because of handling errors on their tryline, like when it looked like a try was on the cards at the end when Eben (Etzebeth) passed to Jesse (Kriel).
“We reckon that Australia are up there with New Zealand in terms of where the threats are. Like the All Blacks, their back three are lightning quick, so this was a good dry run and taste of what we are going to see when we play against New Zealand.”
DISRUPTIONS DIDN’T HELP
Indeed, if Erasmus stayed up to watch the Buenos Aires game he should be emboldened, and there is some context to his team’s at times stuttering performance, in particular the withdrawal of the unfortunate Jean-Luc du Preez, who was selected to play No 8, on the morning of the game because of a gastro problem.
Kwagga Smith was good as his starting replacement off the back of the scrum but it was not a like for like replacement and centre Andre Esterhuizen performed the role of back-up loose-forward, which was far from ideal.
The Wallabies had their problems too, losing the influential fullback Tom Wright and scrumhalf Nic White early in the game, but with the Boks already having been forced to make four changes because of injury, and then Willie le Roux withdrew during the buildup, there was considerable disruption from the start for the hosts.
How many of the players who missed out in Cape Town because of injury will be known later on Sunday or early on Monday when Erasmus names a 36-man squad for the New Zealand mini-series.
“We are sure of about 30 players but there are quite a few guys who have to go for scans (on Sunday) before we can finalise the group,” said Erasmus.