David Campese savours ‘belly full of humble pie’ after Wallabies triumph over Springboks and why he ‘takes great pride’ in James O’Connor performance
David Campese reflects on Australia's victory over South Africa.
In his latest column, David Campese reflects on the Wallabies’ famous victory over the Springboks at Ellis Park that kick started their Rugby Championship campaign.
OK, so I’ll admit, I’m sitting here in the Brisbane sunshine eating copious amounts of humble pie. And, given the performance by the Wallabies, it’s actually the sweetest of pies and I don’t mind swallowing the lot!
As a player I took risks. I never wanted to settle for the mediocre – and sometimes, as a result, I’ll admit I enjoyed some of the highest rugby moments and some huge lows too. And when it comes to punditry I’ll wear my heart on my sleeve and do the same, so I make no apologies for my depth of feeling earlier this week when it comes to the Aussie fortunes.
However, I’ll claim kudos for my support of James O’Connor at 10, something I called for for an entire month during the Lions series and now can take great pride in his performance, especially as he’s someone I’d like to call a mate. JOC was superb in his directness, his ambition and that wonderful 35m left hand pass to set up the Max Jorgensen try.
Exciting Wallabies
Like it or not, I came from an era of Aussie excellence; my teammates from back then and also me take it incredibly personally when the Wallabies don’t excel. Maybe we’re a tad arrogant about it, but they carry a legacy of two World Cups – and, absolutely key for me, a style of play that was heads up, exciting, attacking and intuitive.
And it was fantastic to see Australia deliver exactly that in Jo’burg. It was the antithesis of the Joe Schmidt playbook method – moreover a joyous display of transition rugby, played at huge tempo, with high skill level and great intuition. It was almost as if Harry Wilson and his troops said “F**k it, let’s give it a crack’ in a magnificent counter attacking effort and I’m mighty proud of the way they responded.
South Africa played into the Wallaby hands. They’re a team looking to increase their width in attack, to get more tries on the board and to run touchline attacks better, exactly what we saw when Andre Esterhuizen scored early on. But that style also saw South Africa playing with a lot more freedom in midfield and the middle third, and it was their error count in the face of Fraser McReight and his defensive crew that gave the Wallabies the chance to counter and work off broken field play.
The confidence this will deliver to the squad in general, and the embedding learning, will be huge. But above all, they need to remember not the result, but how the result came about; heads up, fast intuitive counter attacking rugby – the Wallaby way and the blueprint of the legacy we left 25 years ago.
Best of all, Australia have a core of excellence and improvement in their players that will allow them to build upon this success. The midfield of O’Connor, Len Ikitau and Joseph Suaalii was magnificent and will add real intellect to the campaign. We got full value out of the nine shirt from Nic White and Tate McDermott, two players that shone during the Lions series. And in the back five of the pack, Nick Frost has once again proven how disruptive he is, adding real heft alongside a top quality back-row.
But we must not stop there. It’s clear Angus Bell is our premier loosehead and it’s time he started about the ageing James Slipper. I’d love to see Seru Uru come into the wider squad to offer clatter and crash as he did against the Lions, whilst Carlo Tizzano and Charlie Gamble demonstrate the depth Australia have at seven, both well capable of supporting the brilliant McReight in the 23-man game.
Backlash coming
Next weekend sees the fixture repeat itself and Australia can expect the biggest of backlashes from the proud world champions. They’ll be bouncing off the walls in training next week, eager to prove a point and to show that this was a one off aberration. But that eagerness might just play into Wallaby hands – and my thoughts re retaining the brilliance of the transition work remain. There will be chances against this Bok side, and whilst Australia will be in a monumental physical battle, it’s how they pick off the opportunities they create that will define the result.
Again, with a belly full of that delicious humble pie, I make no apologies for the passion and emotion in my words leading up to this Test. Us ex-Wallabies care greatly about the union code in Australia and how we maintain momentum – and whilst I may have been wide of the mark on a couple of things, nothing gave me more pleasure than the final result and I salute the Wallaby warriors that made this happen.
Best of all, they played the Aussie way and that makes me very happy.
