On a greasy day in Cape Town the Wallabies take on the Springboks. Early on it’s clear that South Africa are going to be very South African in their approach today, kicking the daylights out of the ball. I believe that the greasy conditions are advantage South Africa.
First half
An early penalty to Pollard shows the respect that the Australians have earnt.
The first half was scrappy and attritional. With a lovely try to Corey Toole on debut from a smart piece of work from a free kick.
Australia were denied by the TMO fairly early which looked tough.
Australia turned down points twice which felt like the wrong decision and so it turned out to be with neither attacking opportunity turning into points.
It would appear that Australia are paying the injury gods this game with Nic White (HIA), Tom Wright (knee) and JAS (unknown) all going off. It feels like we are getting deep into our depth chart.
20 points to 10 at half time
Second half
The second half was a hard fought affair with both teams playing on the edge both physically and at the edges of the laws.
Max Jorgensen scored a nice try off a kick and funny bounce.
BPA scored from close range breaking away from a driving maul. Crucially James O’ Connor missed the conversion. to leave the Australians a point behind.
Eben Etzabeth scored from a nice power play try from close range.
Turning point
Andrew Kellaway dropping the ball under little pressure gifting the South Africans field position to score the last try.
Overall impressions and key points
With the game played in greasy conditions the advantage was probably with South Africa. They were not going to fall into he trap of overplaying this week and kicked the ball 35 times to 28. South African kick chase is always on point and they probably retained 60% plus of this ball.
Both forward packs fronted up with some sore bodies, the Saffas were very hard on the cleanout this week not conceding any turn overs in close but a few cleaning penalties.
James Doleman and his team did a few weird things but I feel both teams will be equally aggrieved. I felt that the TMO was a bit more involved this week which lessened the spectacle, but overall they didn’t affect the outcome. The breakdown was a bit of a mess but that’s not unexpected given the conditions.
The South Africans played well and took every opportunity that came their way. 3 tries, 3 conversions and 3 penalties without missing a shot. Pollard is the #10 they play when games matter and it showed.
The Australians also played well and it felt like turning down a couple of early shots at goal were going to be important and so it turned out to be. 3 tries 2 conversions, 2 penalties and a couple of missed shots just showed. My Australian standouts were Thor, Frost, Skelton, Bobby V in the piggies. Tate, JOC and Ikitau in the fairies.
The final word
Never happy with a loss but, to be honest, if you’d told me before this tour we went to South Africa and won one game well then had a close loss with that level of game disruption, I would’ve taken it.
We are making excellent progress and although we’re 2 wins and 2 losses from the last 4 we’ve played well in each of those games so it would appear that a new standard has been set for future performances.
