There is something brewing in Australian rugby. The Wallabies, in Australia, more than the All Blacks, is where South Africa’s focus must be for the next four years.
The traditional rugby foe for South Africa is New Zealand. But the 2027 Rugby World Cup is in Australia and not New Zealand. It is a massive red flag for the Boks because it is one country where the Boks, no matter how potent the line-up, have stumbled.
Since South Africa’s international reintroduction in 1992, the Boks have won five Tests, lost 23 and drawn two against the Wallabies in Australia. That is five from 30! The reverse, in South Africa, is as emphatic: The Boks have been as dominant against the Wallabies.
Every rugby coach I have spoken to has always rolled out the cliché that nothing changes in the game. “It is the same white lines both teams play in.” Nah … it is not.
In 2006, by way of one example, the Boks lost 49-0 to the Wallabies at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane. Two months later the very same Boks beat the very same Wallabies 24-16 in South Africa.
The Wallabies, in Australia, are the greatest threat to the Boks’ aspirations of three successive World Cup titles.
Another example is the 2017 Boks. They lost 57-0 to the All Blacks at North Harbour’s Stadium in Albany, just a few minute’s drive across the Harbour Bridge from Auckland. Less than a month later, the very same Boks lost 25-24 against the very same All Blacks at the last Test between the two nations at Newlands Rugby Stadium in Cape Town.
Nah, the four lines are not the same. And for the Springboks, when they play the Wallabies, they are never the same in Australia.
Rassie Erasmus’ Boks, en-route to the 2019 World Cup title, were on fire in beating the All Blacks in New Zealand and post that in downing the British & Irish Lions in South Africa in 2021. But winning in Australia, they bottled it.
Fortunately, for the current World Cup-winning Boks, their last effort in Australia resulted in a 24-8 win in Sydney. It as the Test match that introduced Canan Moodie to the rugby world.
There have been few big moments in between, notably one in Brisbane. The Boks, with Heyneke Meyer as coach, won 38-12 in 2013. The moments for the Boks in Australia against the Wallabies have been few.
Take the World Cup-winning Boks of 2019. They beat everyone, home and away, but could not beat the Wallabies in two Tests in Australia.
In 2009, John Smit’s 2007 World Cup winners also beat the All Blacks in New Zealand, having downed the British & Irish Lions in 2009, but lost emphatically 23-6 to the Wallabies in Brisbane en-route to beating the All Blacks in Hamilton a week later.
The point is, these Aussies are a rugby problem when they play in Australia.
In 2003, Clive Woodward’s England were the most dominant team in international rugby. They had won in Australia and New Zealand. The Wallabies, by contrast, had taken 50 points against the All Blacks in Sydney in the Rugby Championship in 2003.
A few months later, the very same Wallabies beat the All Blacks in the World Cup semifinal, in Sydney, and it took a 100th minute drop goal from Jonny Wilkinson for England to beat the Wallabies in Sydney in the final.
The Wallabies, in Australia, are the greatest threat to the Boks’ aspirations of three successive World Cup titles.
And if you doubt Australia’s ability based on Eddie Jones’s Wallabies horror 2023 World Cup campaign, know that they will be a different animal with Kiwi-born and raised former Ireland coach and All Blacks assistant coach Joe Schmidt at the helm.
* And just to illustrate the Aussie reinvention, the Reds yesterday won 33-28 against the Crusaders for the first time in 25 years in Christchurch in Super Rugby Pacific.
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