The Springboks bounced back — but not before the Wallabies required them to exhibit all their Rugby World Cup winning qualities here last night.
The hosts prevailed, thanks to an improved performance from the one they delivered a week earlier but, again, the visitors proved difficult to tie down as they physically and mentally took the hosts to uncomfortable places.
The All Blacks would have watched with much interest — ahead of hosting the Boks at Eden Park in a fortnight — the way in which Joe Schmidt’s well-drilled team drew Rassie Erasmus’s team from their comfort zone over the last two Tests.
The Boks would have been mightily relieved to right the ship after going down at Ellis Park. Suffering consecutive defeats would have been too ghastly to contemplate. Such had been the Boks hegemony over the last few years, suffering back-to-back defeats are a realm almost foreign to the current crop.
The last time they suffered defeats one after the other was on their end of year tour in 2022, when they lost to Ireland and France in Dublin and Marseille, respectively.
Clearly stung by the events that unfolded last week, the Boks took to the field here with renewed zeal. They were imperious under the high ball. Fullback Aphelele Fassi gave an early indication the Boks were ready to rise to the occasion and, as we’ve come to expect, left-wing Cheslin Kolbe rose even above what we thought possible.
At the ruck, too, the Boks displayed greater clarity. Centre Damian de Allende, hooker Malcolm Marx and prop Thomas du Toit made telling first-half interventions on the deck. The Boks were more co-ordinated in their approach, and they swarmed with menace and purpose when opportunity beckoned.
For much of the first half, their game management appeared on point — certainly a lot more fit-for-purpose than it was a week earlier. Simply put, the home team was more pragmatic in the opening quarter, as they played the game where they could better roll with the percentages.
They were less cavalier in possession. They applied the boot more generously and, like the initial stages of last week’s game, they profited from contestable kicks.
Tries for wing Canan Moodie and No 8 Kwagga Smith delivered concrete proof that the Boks’ game thrives when, as a collective, they apply pressure close to the ball.
The outstanding Handre Pollard kicked an early contestable, allowing De Allende — a willing work horse — to make a timely entrance, forcing the Wallabies into a penalty that yielded the opening score.
Soon after the Wallabies suffered an even bigger blow when influential fullback Tom Wright departed the scene. They lost grizzled scrumhalf Nic White later in the half in the build-up to Moodie’s try.
Through sheer force of will, the Boks got over when Smith was aided and abetted over the tryline after 35 minutes. That handed the Boks a 20-7 lead but it instantly invoked the ghosts of last week when they squandered a sizeable lead at Ellis Park. Ghosts of the recent past became more vivid when James O’Connor converted a penalty as the last act of the first half to trim the Boks’ lead to 10 points.
Indeed, those fears grew after winger Max Jorgensen scored six minutes after the restart.
It was clear that anything short of an 80-minute effort invites trouble against a team as resourceful and well drilled as the Wallabies.
The Boks were exposed to similar angst they experienced at Ellis Park as the Wallabies dusted themselves down and rumbled their way back into the contest after they were 20-7 down just before the break.
It was only after Bok substitute lock Eben Etzebeth barged over in the 73rd minute, and Pollard nervelessly converted, that the Boks earned some late breathing space.
The tourists were hell-bent on turning this into another helter-skelter showdown. They showed over the last fortnight that the Boks aren’t as unflappable as they perhaps were a year or so ago. There were times when they were caught napping, as evidenced in winger Corey Toole’s try in the first half.
They don’t play with the same level of control but that is partly because they often change personnel.
While the Wallabies’ confidence would have been immeasurably boosted by this trip, the Boks would have learnt a lot. They have clearly identifiable areas in which to improve but this win also justifies Erasmus’s selection policy. Crucially, the coach did not blink after last weekend’s defeat, and the Boks will reap the benefits further down the line.
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