How on earth did we win that? Whoever said that you need possession and territory to win games wasn’t at today’s Wallabies versus Springboks Quarter Final.
How can you win a game by playing only 25 per cent of the match in the opposition’s territory? In the greatest escape since… The Great Escape… the Wallabies conjured up a way of winning by 11–9 and it was mainly built on the back of an outstanding defensive effort.
The Bokke just bashed away all game but were repulsed by a Wallaby side intent on not letting anything or anyone through. It was like the French order of the day during the First World War’s Battle of Verdun — ‘They Shall Not Pass’.
There was only one instance (and one potential) where the Springboks really broke through and that was for a disallowed try to Pat Lambie from a forward pass. The stoic defence reflected the Wallabies’ commitment and it didn’t flag all game. The really pleasing thing was that this team didn’t wilt under all this pressure and came from behind to win.
The other side of the coin is what did South Africa do with all the possession and territorial advantage that they had. The answer to that is — bugger all. The Wallabies would have won by 30 if the shoe was on the other foot.
It was a little bit like rope-a-dope today, although it wouldn’t quite have been planned like this: 57 to 43 per cent possession to the Boks with the majority of Wallaby possession being of low quality.
The Wallabies were forced to make 147 tackles to the Springboks’ 53. The fact that they survived this onslaught was miraculous, especially in view of the pressure they were under and the dreadful performance of pivot Quade Cooper.
Experts also say that the game is usually won or lost at the breakdown. The Springboks were dominant in this area as well but they lost Heinrich Brüssow after 20 minutes. François Louw was a pretty good replacement, although he couldn’t really match it with David Pocock on the deck.
Pocock was huge, winning turnovers at crucial times, tackling himself to a standstill and involving himself in attack. He enhanced his reputation as one of the best opensides in the world.
The Wallaby scrum held up pretty well with only one scrum penalty given against Ben Alexander. The same couldn’t be said about the lineout. We lost about five of our own throws and you just can’t afford to not win your own set piece.
We just struggled all day for any front foot possession and most of the 50/50 calls seemed to go against us. Australia’s kicking game today was quite poor with ill-directed and pressure-less kicks being the order of the day. Where were our chasers?
The Wallabies led by 8–3 at the break with a try in the 12th minute by Big Kev Horwill and a penalty by James O’Connor. The Horwill try came about by a ruck turnover in the Bokke 22, with Samo flicking it to McCabe who off-loaded in a tackle to Big Kev. Steyn kicked a penalty in front of the Wallaby sticks for their three points.
In the second half, Steyn kicked two more goals to lead 9–8 but a difficult 70 minute penalty kick for Russouw dumping Samo was successfully taken by JOC to regain the lead. This was one of the very few times that the Wallabies were in Springbok territory in that half.
Apart from David Pocock, James O’Connor had a big match for the Wallabies and was prominent all game. KB took the high ball well and Pat McCabe did everything his coach asked him to do, especially in defence, although it looks like he’s done his shoulder again.
Squeaky Moore, Rocky Elsom and Radike Samo were other forward stand-outs, and Big Kev of course. All credit to the tight five who redeemed themselves after the Ireland debacle.
However, the Wallabies are going to have to do a damn sight better at winning set piece ball and up the physicality at the ruck if they want to progress any further in this competition.
As for any changes, I was throwing things at the TV at about the 60 minute mark imploring Deans to take Quade Cooper off and replace him with Berrick Barnes, such was his dishevelled state.
As it turned out, Berro came on anyway for an injured Pat McCabe and a little later Ant Faingaa had to replace KB, with Cooper moving to fullback.
Cooper missed a swathe of tackles, dropped balls, threw stupid passes and had kicks charged down. He’s a confidence player and at the moment it’s way down. Berrick Barnes’s assured cameo showed who the form player is. Surely QC won’t play as badly again, but such was the pressure.
This match was a nail-biter with two heavyweights of world rugby slugging it out — ten rounds, kick for kick, tackle for tackle, in a real Test match encounter. In the end, the good guys won….
