Springboks v Wallabies: Five takeaways as Rassie Erasmus goes ‘Bok to basics’ with ‘accountant’ Handre Pollard
Springboks fly-half Handre Pollard kicked 15 points.
Following a 30-22 win for the Springboks over the Wallabies that saw them bounce back from last week, here’s our five takeaways from the Rugby Championship fixture.
The top line
South Africa held firm after a spirited fightback from the Wallabies to turn around their disappointment, delivering a much improved, if more conservative, performance in the damp conditions of Cape Town Stadium, taking their first win in the 2025 tournament.
But it was anything but a foregone conclusion, as Australia mounted a real fight in the second half, and but for some clumsy kicking and handling under pressure, they might very well have repeated their memorable win in Johannesburg.
The South African tries came from Canan Moodie, Kwagga Smith and Eben Etzebeth, with the Wallabies matching them score for score as Corey Toole, Max Jorgensen and Brandon Paenga-Amosa all crossed.
However, off the tee, it was a different story, and whilst Handre Pollard was his usual assured self, grabbing six from six, James O’Connor had a dismal day with the boot, hooking three penalties and a crucial conversion, all eminently kickable, to squander 11 points that would have changed the course of the match had he nailed them.
For South Africa, they were much improved and will travel to Auckland to play the All Blacks in a fortnight’s time having something to show for their campaign at last. For the Wallabies, they will leave South Africa in reasonably upbeat spirits knowing they won one and could have taken a second, as they prepare to host Los Pumas in Townsville on September 6.
Boks to basics
South Africa swapped Manie Libbok for Pollard in their selection musings, effectively trading wild ambition for calm pragmatism, and the two-time world champion delivered everything that is expected of him.
An accountant of a fly-half, Pollard deals in points and percentages and anything else, in his eyes, is completely superfluous.
He’s right, of course, and his miserly control of valuable ball saw spiral bombs hit with pinpoint accuracy and no less committed chase, especially from the diminutive Cheslin Kolbe, a man who consistently outleaps players twice his size and gains positive outcome after positive outcome.
From the very first moment, Pollard looked to the skies for early dominance and the first two Bok scores came from his aerial vision and precision. With their fly-half threatening with the boot, it allowed South Africa to combine running men off nine, short and direct, and kicking off 10, long and inviting, a real return to their DNA that’s seen them home in so many tight games. In addition, with Ox Nche, Smith and Marco van Staden (his first-half steal was as much of a work of art as a 50m Kolbe try!) pressuring rucks with low bases and almost subterranean stealing, South Africa’s breakdown work was a league ahead of their dismal afternoon last weekend, as they got under the collision and shoulder of the big Aussie back-row.
But it was what the Boks didn’t do that was as important as what they did do; they refused to play speculative rugby in the middle of the pitch, something that cost them dearly in Jo’burg and gave Australia the turnover ball that they thrive from. It was controlled, intelligent, brutal in power and clever in intellect, the qualities that have served South Africa so well for so many years, qualities that are the foundation of the hugely successful tenure of Rassie Erasmus.
Will the Boks be happy?
A win is a win as they say, and South African teams has always been realistic enough in rugby terms to understand than points on the board are more important that hanging art on a wall. Given their defeat last week and the manner that the Wallabies again rocked them in the second half, they’ll be pleased enough to take the big W and to move forward into the second block of fixtures when they travel to Eden Park to face the All Blacks next month.
Sure, there was massive improvement in breakdown work, a much better lineout from Malcolm Marx despite a couple of early wobbles, and some real hard nosed intellect from Pollard, Jesse Kriel and Damien de Allende in midfield.
But once again, missed tackles blighted their game; an 80% return, with some 31 missed tackles is way below class best at Test level; Australia managed 89%, missing only 15 from a similar number of attempts, and the Boks need to sort out their one-on-one defensive work pretty quickly considering the firepower they’ll face when they meet New Zealand.
They’ll also be concerned about their carrying; save for some rumbustious efforts from Smith, Van Staden and Etzebeth, they came off way behind Australia, recording only 182 post contact metres, some 20% below the Wallabies’ total of 249m from their efforts, led by the outstanding Len Ikitau who made 53 post contact metres himself. A lot of the Wallaby success came from short pop work around the nine, getting big men working off the shoulder to change the point of contact, something that had the double effect of Boks falling off tackles and of Australia making metres over the gain in contact.
There’s a lot of honing to be done before the trip to Auckland and Erasmus will need to be focusing on a huge improvement in carrying and defence if their trip to New Zealand is going to be successful.
Two crucial errors
Australia were two or three errors away from repeating their massive feat of a week ago.
Again, they grew into the match and gave South Africa another scare as they almost did the impossible and won two on the road in the hardest rugby environment in the world.
O’Connor, outstanding in open play, had an absolute nightmare off the tee, missing three key kicks, a conversion and two penalties, that at worst would have given the Wallabies a losing bonus-point, at best saw them home and dry with another win against the world champions.
To compound matters, his pressured pass to Andrew Kellaway, a pass that simply died in the arms of the Aussie winger and was knocked on, led to the scrummage that saw Etzebeth thunder over for an absolutely key try, one that ensured that South Africa remained more than a single score away from the Aussie comeback.
Ironically, O’Connor is more and more looking like the right man to run the show from the 10 shirt, despite his fluffs in this match. He was direct, and fused physicality with intelligence and guile. However, Pollard sets the bar when it comes to owning the scoreboard in Test rugby – and his six from six off the tee was a quantum difference.
Injury disruption
For Australia, what could go wrong did go wrong, in terms of their replacement strategy. Firstly, they lost Nic White, a key man in their ruck speed and decision making around the collision area. White had already made a big mark on proceedings as his sharp thinking saw Toole scream over for Australia’s first try.
A few moments later, another of the Jo’burg heroes, Tom Wright took his leave after a head clash and as the teams went out for the second half, so another key man, Joseph Suaalii saw his afternoon end early as he suffered the same fate as Wright.
Now, Kellaway and Tate McDermott are outstanding Test performers, but the Wallaby bench exploded with thunderclap effect in the first round, making a massive impact on the final scoreline. When players of the stature of those lost leave the pitch early, it takes so much momentum from the latter stages of the match planning and takes away any opportunity for Australia to change the dynamic or tactic of their gameplan.
Harry Wilson’s presence was missed greatly too; the Aussie back-row had nothing near the dynamism and bite that we saw in Jo’burg, and try as they did, the rejigged six and eight combination lacked the cutting edge of the power carries of the Wallaby skipper.
However, a couple of bright lights for the Wallabies came in the shapes of Ikitau, wonderfully direct and always prepared to make the hard metres down the 12 channel, and Nick Frost, a man developing into a real menace of a lock, clever in his aerial work and outstanding in his defence. These are two men growing into their Test career and Joe Schmidt will looking to build his Rugby World Cup 2027 campaign around that very talented pair of players.
READ MORE: Springboks exact revenge over Wallabies in Cape Town to get Rugby Championship hopes back on track
