Springbok pride looms to doom

By DAVID KIRK - Fairfax Media | Saturday, 30 August 2008



It is hard to know which is less likely - the Springboks losing three in a row at home or the Wallabies winning two in a row away from home. Surely the Wallabies cannot win tonight.


But then I thought that about last week. After losing badly to the All Blacks and suffering the embarrassment of failing to score for the first time in 97 years I thought the Wallabies would be on the end of an almighty Springbok backlash. As it was, the South Africans were a directionless rabble.

The Wallabies had to survive the usual physical belting from the Springboks but they could have left their brains safely tucked away in the changing room - some of them quite possibly did - and still out-thought the gormless Springboks.

Last week the Springboks made the cardinal mistake of not giving the Wallabies the respect they deserved. In so far as any pattern or approach that could loosely be regarded as a game plan was discernible from the Springboks, it was that they assumed they would dominate the set pieces - the scrum especially - and, with hard running from aggressive loose-forwards and inside backs, break the Wallaby defence down. Dumb.

While this Wallaby team may not be the most skilful or composed we have ever seen, they have courage and they play for each other right to the end. They know how to defend and more importantly they have the heart to keep at it until they quite literally physically drop. Robbie Deans, as he has acknowledged, has a deep well of character to draw on as he builds his Wallabies into a genuine world-class team.

The Springbok coach told a press conference this week that:
"The Peter de Villiers game plan is all about adding decision-making to structure and we are stuck at the moment at decision-making".

He can say that again and they didn't look too structured either, but the same could be said of the Wallabies. Apart from the final 20 minutes of the Sydney test match against the All Blacks, the Wallabies have yet to develop any fluency or consistent pattern in their game.

The Wallabies know how to win ugly, which is great, but if they are to take the next step and dominate good opposition they need to play with the sort of speed and accuracy that makes for attractive rugby.

The building blocks are nearly there: The scrum has gone from weak to competitive; the lineout has been less consistent than usual, but generally okay; in Cordingley and Giteau the inside backs have the skill and nouse to play at the right end of the field and we all know Mortlock and Tuqiri can finish.


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