Almost a year has passed since Australia beat South Africa
by just two points to make the World Cup semi-final but Boks can gain their
revenge since in the sweetest of style by rendering the hosts pointless for a
third successive matchday in this Rugby Championship.
With back-to-back defeats against the All Blacks, New
Zealand are currently pointless at this moment in time an while admittedly they’ve
come up against a side who no – one can handle at this moment in time, they
were roundly thrashed at Eden Park and the hosts could have doubled their score
had they not made some bad decisions with the game well and truly over in the
second half. Robbie Deans’s side simply haven’t been playing at the same level
since that World Cup (where they had previously inflicted a convincing 25-20
defeat upon the All Blacks), something emphasised by the two All Black defeats,
and having originally set the goal of winning the Bledisloe Cup and Rugby
Championship, the target now is to 'finish as well as we can'.
Injury problems have taken away James Horwill, James
O'Connor, David Pocock and Drew Mitchell – the spine of their best team in
recent years and at the heart of everything they did against South Africa in
Wellington, where they were lucky to win that encounter anyway, and with Kurtley Beale and Quade Cooper not at their
peak after problems finding form, they look incredibly poor odds on shots. This
is presumably based upon the fact that that Australia have won six of the last
seven games between the two and still have a record of eight wins from 12, but
those wins all came with the above players at the fore – Pocock single handedely
prevented South Africa from making the most of the astonishing 76% possession
they had through the game – and this is a great chance for South Africa to take
a clear pull away with New Zealand at the top of the standings.
Boks coach Henke Meyer is under pressure from home fans
after a draw with Argentina in Mendoza where they were lucky to get away with
the draw, but the Pumas are no pushovers anywhere, especially at home, and the
physical nature of his game should be effective against an Australia side which
looks vulnerable after the major injuries they’ve suffered of late. South
Africa have never been known for their expressive nature with the ball in hand
but that could be just what they need for this particular clash and at 7/5 they
look to be massively overpriced in a game that should be 5/6 each of two. An
even better bet is South Africa to win by 1-12 points at 12/5 with Paddy Power,
an excellent bet given the conservative nature of the Boks, who have been
accused of not creating enough under Meyer (a fair criticism) but they could
really be smiling today.
Advice
3 pts South Africa to win by 1-12 points (12/5 Paddy Power)
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