Springboks vs Wallabies: Five takeaways as dire tackle rate causes South Africa meltdown and Australia dominate broken field

Australia pulled off the impossible as they finally recorded their first Test win against the Springboks on South African turf since their victory in Durban in 2012.

Here are our five takeaways from today’s game.

The top line

It was a game of two parts; a magnificent opening 20-minute burst by South Africa threatened to blast Australia off the pitch. But after those 22 points in the first quarter, they haemorrhaged 38 points in the next 60 as Joe Schmidt’s men delivered one of the greatest Wallaby performances in recent years to fight back.

Led by a wonderful performance at the breakdown by Fraser McReight as he repeated his 2022 Adelaide heroics, a brilliant captain’s innings of running power by two try hero Harry Wilson, and some magnificence in midfield from James O’Connor and the superb Joseph Suaalii, the Wallabies overcame their early issues to run riot with six tries with Tom Wright, Max Jorgensen, Wilson (2), Dylan Pietsch and Suaalii all crossing.

South Africa’s early salvo came courtesy of Andre Esterhuzien, Kurt-Lee Arendse and Siya Kolisi, but as they pushed to play a wider, attacking style, so errors and unfamiliarity crept in, with McReight and Tom Hooper really coming into their own at the breakdown and in defence, to dominate proceedings, with the openside winning four penalties and two turnovers in addition to his 20 tackles in a simply brilliant personal outing.

Hottest start

South Africa can thank their absolute aerial dominance for the 22-0 lead they achieved within the first 20 minutes of the match.

It was a combination of wonderful box kicking from Grant Williams, combined with sheer physicality in the chase and drop zone sweep that set the two teams apart in those early exchanges, with the brilliance of Arendse, Edwill van der Merwe and even the great Eben Etzebeth setting the agenda with some great reclaims.

The first Springbok try came from a Tom Wright aerial error, as he looked to claim the Libbok kick, but only succeeded in knocking it forward. A few moments later, the green machine swept the length of the field for that man KLA to scream over for the opener.

Kick strategy is fine on paper, but it requires accuracy in execution and the work of both Libbok and Williams in dropping the ball on a sixpence gave the chase a real target to aim for; never too short, never too long, it allowed eager chasers to run on to the catch, providing key leap momentum against the static catchers of the Wallaby defence.

The Bok attack, under Tony Brown, has seen a newfound desire to get width on the ball and pace down the tramlines. Williams’ passing width was at the heart of the Esterhuizen try (his first in 21 tests) as a stressed Nic White missed a key Jesse Kriel in the wide channel, and the interplay that followed was made possible by a brilliant inside line from Pieter Steph du Toit to maintain continuity on the inside shoulder, giving Esterhuizen a run to the line for his maiden test try.

Coldest finish

But was it that desire to play with width that cost the Springboks their natural and normal rhythm?

After the first 20 minutes of green power, the next 80 were a tidal wave of gold ingenuity, sparked by their back row and engineered by James O’Connor and Joseph Suaalii off a transition opportunity.

Put bluntly, South Africa stopped playing like the Springboks they are, and played a wider and looser game that simply played into the hands of the athletic and individual skills of Australia, who had shown themselves to have a lot of firepower in attack in the recent Lions series, especially in those turnover moments.

The Wallabies thrive in transition and broken field, and any side that’s going to concede 17 turnovers of possession against them is simply asking for trouble. Sure, McReight and Suaalii were brilliant in closing down the Bok running game and pressuring them into errors, but SA didn’t react to what was happening in front of them. It was a completely bizarre lack of rugby intellect from their game controllers, and after dominating the airways in the first quarter, Williams and Libbok seemed intent on width at all costs without ever glancing at the scoreboard, something that cost them dearly.

Perhaps it needed the pragmatism of the absent Damian de Allende or Handre Pollard to get back to the Bok DNA, but as much as you can look at South African errors, you cannot deny the brilliance of the Aussies, from six to 13, in their efforts.

And it came with a little help from their back three, where Tom Wright’s shaky start turned into match-winning runs, his contrasting performance from the first quarter to the other three providing a microcosm of the shift change of the game swing itself.

The moment of the match came from James O’Connor – with SA mounting a proud comeback, his play from the halfway line throwing out a perfect 30m pass off his left hand to see Max Jorgensen scream over would have put a smile on the faces of all those who have campaigned for his inclusion.

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The game in numbers

South Africa pride themselves on the basic metrics of the cornerstones of test rugby- the breakdown, the aerial battle, defence and set piece.

To read that overall they achieved 68% in the lineout, missed 26 tackles for an 80% return and lost the post-contact metre battle by some 70 odd metres, with 325m playing 395m from the Wallabies, will ring alarm bells in Rassie Erasmus’s coaching team.

The back row lacked industry and balance – often out of position and failing to nail down the well-rehearsed basics of their role. Eben Etzebeth’s aggression was neutralised by big Will Skelton, and even Taniela Tupou held the SA scrum at bay, bar for one penalty against them.

The most telling stat was the tackle leaders; out of the top ten defenders on the pitch, eight were Aussies, with only Etzebeth (16) and Esterhuizen (9) listed. The Aussie back row took three of the top four spots with McReight (20), Hooper (14) and Wilson (13) combining for a match-winning shift.

However, the most worrying stat for the Boks is that only two of the Aussie tries came from red zone activity; four were run in from the area between the 22 and halfway line, a terrible indictment of how many times the hosts coughed the ball up and were turnover, and a telling endorsement of the Wallaby brilliance in transition.

Works-ons

Rassie Erasmus will be bitterly disappointed in the penalty count against his side, particularly on the floor, where five consecutive calls went against them for a litany of technical offences that will infuriate their great coach.

The Boks are so good around the breakdown and at winning shoulder battles that there’s no excuse for such inaccuracies from a team of this calibre and, as noted previously, they lost a MASSIVE 17 turnovers in total, either in ruck, lineout or open play, down to the pressure of the Wallaby loose trio and the defensive efforts elsewhere.

It was telling that the run of penalties took place when South Africa’s Marco van Staden was off the pitch; his heavy shoulder did so much of the unseen work. However, with pressure to play width in attack in their new era, you have to ask if this affected the rest of the Springbok loose forwards, who spent so much time away from the contact area in support roles, something that allowed Australia a field day on the floor.

The Boks will also be concerned once again about Malcolm Marx’s lineout throwing, which yet again returned a meagre 63% success rate. The Bok hooker is a genius in open play, but his darts under pressure were the aspect of the hosts’ game that allowed easy-outs for the Wallabies, with two of their tries, including the galloping effort from Harry Wilson, coming from basic line-out errors. Marx is averaging around 60% completion since his return from injury post World Cup, a long way away from the standards that the Springboks would expect. To add insult to injury, Bongi Mbonambi’s throws weren’t much better as he lost three, demonstrating that SA need to sort out their stuff in this area of the set-piece.

For Australia, you could recycle the words above around their lineout effort- but rather than the throws going awry, it was more down to the brilliance of Pieter Steph du Toit (three steals) and his cohorts that took Australia’s platform away from them.

Finally, it’s that Wallaby aerial battle that also needs attention. Had SA kept the kick pressure on and maintained a more direct physical approach, Australia would have been far more stressed defensively. On too many occasions, the men in gold found themselves in a static jump situation against a dynamic Springbok leaper. That’s about reading the kick, standing back in order to get pace into the leap, and keeping sweepers behind to control the drop zone, two things they failed to react to, particularly in the first half.

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