O'Connor manages to find a touch of magic to set up the decisive score.
I’d predicted a “surprise” Australia win for this one but, on watching the game, it was really not much of a surprise. The returning South African players, many of whom were rested for the last six weeks, were so far off match fitness that Australia should have won by a larger margin.
I missed the opening exchanges as I was watching the end of Wales and England but a Francois Steyn put the home side in front with a penalty in the second minute after Rocky Elsom took out Bakkies Botha off the ball.
Butch James added a second penalty at the end of the first quarter to give South Africa a 6 – 0 lead and could have went further ahead when the bounce of the ball wrong footed Quade Cooper over the goal line. Cooper did enough to put off the chasing Jacques Fourie who was judged to knock the ball on before touching down.
With New Zealand referee Bryce Lawrence allowing a lot of competition, behind, in front and on top of the ball, at the break down the South African pack looked to be getting on top with Heinrich Brussow and Pierre Spies particularly effective but the backs struggled to move the ball with Fourie du Preezgetting particularly tetchy around the fringes and the first half finished without further score.
James O’Connor added an early penalty in the second half and minutes later the talented winger drew two defenders to put Pat McCabe clear for the games only try. The conversion was missed but Australia were in the lead 6 – 8 and South Africa were beginning to wilt.
De Villiers emptied his bench with Bismarck du Plessis looking impressive in the loose and the home side inched ahead with a James penalty, but from then on in it was all Australia.
O’Connor added a penalty to retake the lead and South Africa faced further humiliation when their scrum was destroyed near their line for O’Connor to slot over his third penalty of the match.
With the score reading 9 – 14 South Africa needed a converted try to win but the Aussies kept them out reasonably comfortably.
Don’t know who got the most out of this. Australia will be pleased that they returned to winning ways but it was a fractured performance. O’Connor struggled from the tee for the second match in a row and, apart from O’Connor’s delightful shimmy to wrong foot two defenders, the much vaunted back line failed to live up to their billing. In contrast, the much maligned pack has finished the last two games strongly and as long as Ben Alexander stays fit they can compete up front.
It’ll be interesting to see what they do with Matt Giteau over the next couple of matches as he has to feature sometime before the World Cup.
South Africa were so far off the pace that it’s hard to judge their potential on this outing. They will improve and the back row has the potential to be pretty awesome. Their problems lie in the front row and they have to figure out how they are going to work with du Plessis and John Smit in the front row. Bismarck is like a charging rhino in the loose but moving Smit to prop to keep him on the pitch is just not working.
The half back paring of du Preeze and James is not working with James too predictable and Du Preeze needing game time. The scrum half lacks Pienaar’s composure on the evidence of this match and composure is something that this Boks side needs.
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