Springbok scrumhalf Faf de Klerk argues with the referee during their Rugby Championship match against the Wallbies at the Adelaide Oval. Picture: Brenton Edwards/AFP
Cape Town - As much as the refereeing was questionable at times, the Springboks only have themselves to blame for their 25-17 disaster against the Wallabies in Adelaide.
And, let’s be honest: it started even before the match with some of the selections made by coach Jacques Nienaber.
He opted to back the likes of Duane Vermeulen, Pieter-Steph du Toit and Joseph Dweba despite that trio being off their games in the last Test against the All Blacks at Ellis Park, and he paid the price for the loyalty shown as the Boks delivered yet another lacklustre display in Australia.
Another player in that category was scrumhalf Faf de Klerk, who hasn’t been at his best in 2022, but was preferred to Jaden Hendrikse, who has grown positively with every game he’s played.
Wallabies score in the first minute ⚡️
— SuperSport 🏆 (@SuperSportTV) August 27, 2022
Quick hands sees Fraser McReight dot down, game on!
📺 Stream #AUSvRSA live: https://t.co/0BMWdeEYT3 pic.twitter.com/SBrIKg3TcL
The Wallabies came with all their usual party tricks when they face the Boks – wheeling the scrums, going hard at the breakdowns, and finding unique ways to stop mauls.
Yet, despite knowing what’s coming, the South Africans couldn’t land the knockout punch when the Australians were on the ropes.
Having to play catch-up didn’t help the visitors either as the hosts ran up a 10-0 lead in seven minutes as the energy and width on attack from the Wallabies was too much to handle for a surprisingly flat-footed Bok defence.
Even though the Boks had positive passages of play where they looked to offload in the tackle, they still chose to kick the ball away at crucial times inside the Wallaby half.
💬 "Our discipline let us down. Intent wise, we weren't up to standard in the first half."
— SuperSport 🏆 (@SuperSportTV) August 27, 2022
Springbok captain Siya Kolisi reacts to their loss against the Wallabies. pic.twitter.com/4D3qinmeeY
Things got even worse as Handre Pollard missed two relatively easy shots at goal when the Bok forwards flexed their muscles upfront – dominating the scrums and stealing lineouts – and instead of reducing the gap to 10-9, it was only 10-3 at halftime.
New Zealand referee Paul Williams didn’t have his best outing either. He did dish out a yellow card to Wallaby right wing Tom Wright for being offside as Vermeulen took a tap penalty, but he also missed quite a few incidents when the Aussies scrummed in, while refusing to issue further yellow cards for maul collapses.
And then Williams didn’t even refer Marika Koroibete for a dangerous tackle on Makazole Mapimpi that looked like he didn’t use his arms.
How did the Wallabies stop this try?! 🤯![CDATA[]]>🤯
— Stan Sport Rugby (@StanSportRugby) August 27, 2022
📺 Wallabies v Springboks | LIVE on Stan Sport.#StanSportAU #TRC2022 #AUSvRSA pic.twitter.com/StqqpZ9hDE
Worse still was the yellow card handed to De Klerk for making contact with Nic White’s face when he tried to slap the ball down from a scrum, with the Wallaby No 9 criticised on social media for his ‘Oscar’-worthy performance in falling slowly to the ground.
But try as they might, the Boks just never found their rhythm on attack, with Pollard battling to get the backline going. The likes of Damian Willemse and Warrick Gelant had a few solo jinking runs here and there, but it never resulted in any points.
Instead, the Wallabies stuck to their script of frustrating the Boks into errors, and then landed secured the victory with Koroibete’s sensational touchdown as he left Pollard for dead with a lethal side-step, while Fraser McReight grabbed his second touchdown following a Noah Lolesio line-break.
At 25-3 with 15 minutes to go, the result was done, and two late Kwagga Smith consolation tries added some respectability to the final score.
But if the Boks are to end their win drought in Australia at the Allianz Stadium in Sydney next Saturday, Nienaber will have to make some big selection calls next week …
@ashfakmohamed