Springboks history makers. Great rugby players. South Africa, take a bow.
The Springboks of 2024 are leaders in being the first squad to have won successive Tests against the Wallabies in Australia in the same month — let alone the same season — in the professional era.
Perth, yesterday, was a special win.
There are those who will focus on the Wallabies being at their lowest since the game turned professional. From a South African perspective, don’t even go there. This was about South Africa. This was about the Springboks.
In the history of Test matches in Perth, before Saturday, the Wallabies edged the Boks 21-20 over nine Tests. The biggest winning margin was seven points, achieved once by both sides.
Yesterday, the Boks won by 18. A week earlier the Boks won by 26 against the Wallabies at Suncorp’s Stadium in Brisbane.
Again, so many will say this is the poorest Wallabies in the professional era. Forget that, let’s just love the World Cup-winning Springboks, champions in 2019 and 2023.
I, for one, wanted him to send the A team to Perth and finish the Wallabies, once and for all. His 'B' team did the job
They went to Australia to play two Tests and left with a combined two-Test score of 63-19. Australia scored just one try in 160 minutes, and did this when the Boks were playing 13 on 15 in Brisbane.
The Boks left with 10 league points, and they now play three of their last four Rugby Championship matches at home.
The Springboks, in the history of the competition, have won just four titles in 28 attempts. Australia have four wins and the All Blacks 20.
That statistic is just wrong when one considers the quality of talent available to the Boks.
Kudos to Bok coach Rassie Erasmus. He went to Suncorp Stadium and his team made a statement with a record-equalling 26-point win against the Wallabies in Australia.
I, for one, wanted him to send the A team to Perth and finish the Wallabies, once and for all. His B team did the job.
Rassie decided to make 10 changes to the starting XV, loaded his bench with World Cup-winning Springboks and told the world all week he was confident of a record win in Perth. He was not wrong.
Australia, wounded and wound up, were always going to be competitive for 40 minutes, and that is all they could bring to the occasion. The Boks, having botched a couple of tries in the first 30, could have sealed the game on 30 but the inaccuracy in that period gave the Wallabies hope, and gave the match respect for the opening half.
The Wallabies needed a miracle in the first half to shock the sport. They were not good enough to produce it. And when the Boks changed ends 11-9 ahead, you just knew that the second half was going to get messy the moment the Boks super subs were introduced.
The script wrote itself and the Boks were supreme in the second half. They won by 18 and could easily have won by 30. That is the level of the dominance of the Boks.
Earlier in the morning, the All Blacks confirmed their superiority at Auckland’s Eden Park. They smashed the Pumas, much to the irritation of the neutral. Each time the Pumas have beaten the All Blacks — which has been three times — the following match between the two has ended with a near 40-point All Blacks differential.
I, for one, romanticised it would be different in Auckland, and I did look to the stars for inspiration that this was the weekend the Pumas did the incredible and ended the All Blacks’ winning run at Eden Park, which dates back to their last defeat against France in 1994.
Then the hammer of reality hit, and the Pumas took a beating. The All Blacks were leading 42-3 within 42 minutes.
In Perth, it was a similar hammer, delivered by the Boks. It was brutal and it was beautiful. It was also a testament to the depth that Rassie has built and continues to build. It was just a fabulous day for the Springboks.
Enjoy it and salute the super Bok history makers.
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