Rugby Championship Review - Australia 12 - 38 South Africa

David Campese, or ‘Campo’, is a figure who divides a lot of opinion – even in his native Australia.  To some he was a rugby genius who now is to be admired for his honesty when expressing his opinion, whilst to others he was a flaky winger who happened to play in a great Wallaby side and now is generally a loud mouthed gob-sh*te.  I happen to believe the former – he was a class act, as his try tally will tell you, and beneath his rather racist views on Aussie cricket and his bizarre hatred of all things English, lies your typical Australian sportsman.  By that I mean competitive as hell, sure in his own ability and someone who knows his game inside out.  And my goodness could the Wallabies do with a few more Campos right now.

Fresh off the back of 2 solid defeats to the All Blacks, the men in gold returned home to Brisbane, a place where their opponents hadn’t seen a victory – ever.  And yet South Africa rolled into town off the back of 8 consecutive victories and two impressive wins in the Championship, with one home hammering of the Pumas before returning to steal a tight game in Argentina.  But surely, this was just the battle for second place, with the All Blacks already looking like the team to beat?

The Springboks didn’t see it that way, as they powered their way into the lead early on.  A monster penalty touch-finder from Morne Steyn was driven forward by The Beast (it’s too hard to spell his name...) before blood-sub prop Coenie Oosthuizen barrelled his way over from 3 metres out with less than 5 minutes on the clock.  The conversion was inevitably slotted by Steyn and the visitors were 7-0 up in the blink of an eye.

Three minutes later it looked as if the Wallabies may have found a way back in, as Willem Alberts was harshly sinbinned for a deliberate knock on, but they could muster one penalty from Christian Lealiffano, which Steyn replied to in turn.  When Alberts did return to the field, the first thing he did was hammer Scott Fardy as the toothless Wallaby attack was broken time and time again by the powerful Springbok defence.  The half petered out into something of a bad-tempered arm-wrestle as Lealiifano and Steyn swapped 3-pointers, before Bismark Du Plessis knocked on with the line at his mercy on the stroke of half time. 16-6 to the Boks.

Despite an early penalty from Lealiifano, any hopes of a Wallaby comeback were effectively dashed when Michael Hooper – perhaps the one outstanding Australian player this Championship – was ludicrously yellow carded for a tip tackle on Bryan Habana by George Clancy.  Less than 10 years ago, Jonny Wilkinson was making his name for tackles like this and was applauded for being a phenomenal defender – now you receive yellow cards for tackles that aren’t dangerous but involve picking up a leg.

Eight minutes later, following an exchange of penalties from Steyn and Lealiifano, the writing was on the wall as Nick Cummins lost the ball in contact for about the 5^th time, which gave Habana the chance to gas his way past Folau and put in a chip that was gathered by Juandre Kruger.  The ball was quickly recycled and captain Jean De Villiers coasted his way through a gap the size of Oosthuizen’s chest to touch down for a superb score.

Things got even better for the men in green as the match drew to an end – firstly, Zane Kirchner touched down following a gorgeous pass from Ruan Pienaar and an inside flick from Willie Le Roux, before Le Roux himself touched down for his side’s 4^th after picking up a turnover from Quade Cooper and dummying to set himself clear.

The final score was 38-12 to the Boks, and their hoodoo at Brisbane had been well and truly broken.  This wasn’t just a thumping, but a message – the Boks mean business.  Campo couldn’t have crowed it better himself.