This was disgraceful from a Springboks team that looked more chump than champ.
Forget the final score eight-point differential. The Boks trailed 25-3 at 73 minutes.
Perhaps it was the time of kick-off, 2pm in glorious sunshine. Perhaps it was the fact that the world expected the 2019 World Cup winners to beat an Australian team that a fortnight ago conceded seven tries and 48 points to Argentina.
Most likely, though, it is because this is a Bok team whose players haven’t managed to match their hype with performance since the one-off win against the All Blacks in Nelspruit.
The Boks are three from six this season and they have played five of those Tests in South Africa.
History was against the Springboks in Australia, with just four wins from 29 against the Wallabies in Australia since the game turned professional in 1996. Make that four from 30 after the agony of Adelaide.
Where to start?
At the team selection.
It was dire and my criticism of this was well documented in the week. Still, I felt there was no rugby argument to be made in favour of a shambolic Wallabies team that had lost a home series to England; got smashed in Argentina; were decimated by injury; and had won just 10 matches from 25 under Dave Rennie.
The Wallabies are eight from 23 against all-comers since Rennie took charge and three from three against the Boks. He certainly has Rassie Erasmus and Jacques Nienaber’s number.
Once again, the Boks were outcoached, as per game plan, and the players were out-passioned.
Just how the latter happens always perplexes me. How does a team spend a week preparing, smash the tackle bags for 40 minutes in a warm-up and then never get out of first gear for the opening 30 minutes of the actual match?
How does a Test hooker continuously miss his first throw of a match?
The Boks, in Adelaide, were a team suffering an identity crisis. They don’t know whether to slow dance or breakdance. This confused state isn’t easy on the eye.
Something is amiss with the Boks. The win against the All Blacks is the aberration to a season in which they have looked a mess too often. They have looked off the pace in conditioning, the selections have not rewarded domestic form, and the line-out has malfunctioned.
The Boks, with 25% possession and 20% field position in the opening 15 minutes, made 48 tackles to Australia’s 15. They trailed 10-nil within the first 10 and despite a scrum dominance and spending the final 15 minutes of the first half camped in Australia’s half, they could make no inroads.
Handre Pollard, at flyhalf, was a horror show. I expected so much of him, as I did the entire Boks match 23, but they never delivered.
Individually, there was so little to be enthusiastic about and collectively there was nothing
Individually, there was so little to be enthusiastic about and collectively there was nothing.
The Wallabies, ranked seventh in the world going into the Test, are a struggling outfit but against the limp Boks they were made to look like world champions.
The match officiating was dire but the Boks, in every aspect, were more awful than any of the decisions made by the match officials.
Nienaber, since taking over from Erasmus, has won 10 from 18 against Tier One opposition. It means he is getting it wrong 45% of the time under the mentorship of Erasmus.
I was told in the week Erasmus and Nienaber, World Cup and Lions series winners, only win the ones that matter and that every defeat is part of the 2023 World Cup plan.
I was also once told a fat bloke dressed in a red jumpsuit delivered gifts on December 25 if you were well behaved in the year.
• Mark Keohane is the founder of keo.co.za, a multiple award-winning sports writer and the digital content director at Highbury Media. Twitter: @mark_keohane
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