It was Bobby Orr who said ‘Forget about style; worry about
results.’ and today angry Springbok fans can get a bit of respite from their
recent disappointments as South Africa give a convincing beating to Australia on home turf
in today’s first Rugby Championship game. Australia have won their last 5
meetings with South Africa, but there’s been a massive amount of luck and
Springbok error involved in those victories and everything finally seems set
fair in South Africa’s favour to put things right today.
Home turf is a massive vantage in International Rugby like
no other but Loftus Versfield is a special place. Only New Zealand, the Lions
and England have won in 30 tests there and the Boks also possess a record of 5
wins from 5 matches at this venue against Australia.
With South Africa being so much better at home their away
performances are hugely encouraging. They led 13-6 at the break against
Australia and were the better side for long periods of the contests before costly
defensive mistakes cost them dear (the scores were level with just 12 minutes
to go) but they were even better against New Zealand, where they lost 21-11 but
missed 20 points off the tee alone thanks to the wastefulness of Morne and
Frans Steyn. It belied criticism of a one-dimensional game plan that involved
the fly-half Morne Steyn hoisting the ball high into the air and putting
pressure on the All Blacks to commit errors, which worked better than anyone
else could have imagined with a whole batch of kickable opportunities. This
doesn’t even take into account the certain try missed by Bryan Habana when the
last pass just went astray, which in total makes it an astonishing 25 points
just thrown away. Make no mistake, it was a game they should have won with some
ease last week but back at home with high altitude to help them, kicking should
be that much easier off the tee and Australia present nowhere near the threat
that New Zealand did offensively while their defence is more than breachable
for a side boasting the forward power that the Boks can boast of.
Robbie Deans has won a remarkable 10 of 14 matches in the
past year with three defeats combing against the All Blacks, but at least half
of those could have been losses (and heavy ones at that too) and Australia’s
injury problems are at their worst point ever under Deans. James Horwill, James
O'Connor, David Pocock and Drew Mitchell are already out of the side but Quade
Cooper – who just this week labelled the atmosphere in the camp as “toxic” – has
already been reprimanded after his potentially season ending injury, pushing
Kurtley Beale into the No.10 spot. Beale is a top class 10 and Pat McCabe still
offers a threat, but the rest of the team doesn’t look upto scratch and if
South Africa can’t win this time around, it’s hard to see when they’ll arrest
the slide. Look for the hosts to lead from the front and cover a seven point
handicap, with 49 points or more also looking to be the call.
Advice
3 pts South Africa -7 (10/11 general)
1 pt South Africa -3 on half time handicap (5/6 general)
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