The short-form 2023 Rugby Championship kicked off in Pretoria with Australia’s visit to Loftus Versfeld. With the World Cup just 2 months away, new Australia head coach Eddie Jones was naming his first Wallabies squad, and they were spared an early deficit on 3 minutes as Manie Libbok’s penalty from halfway fell just short. While South Africa were focusing on the territory game early on, Australia were looking to vary their attack, and when they took advantage of a loose ball following a Jean Kleyn lineout steal, the backs managed to beat the South African blitz to send Marika Koroibete clear out wide to score in the corner. Libbok soon hit back with a penalty from much closer to the posts as South Africa started playing more with the ball in hand, and their next attack was even more fruitful, with Canan Moodie breaking down the wing into the Wallabies 22 to set up Kurt-Lee Arendse to walk over untouched on the other side of the pitch just a couple of phases later. South Africa were going through a phase of dominance, and though a shanked clearance from Libbok gave the Wallabies a chance at possession in their 22, the defence held firm. A fine turnover from Wallabies co-captain Michael Hooper gave Reece Hodge a chance to cut the lead from just inside the South African half, but the centre again failed to find the target off the tee. And South Africa made them pay on the half hour mark as Marco van Staden peeled off a maul down the blindside to release Bongi Mbonambi, with Arendse popping up on his shoulder to provide the pace to finish the chance. Jones looked to his bench early—not for the first time in his career—by replacing debutant Tom Hooper with Pete Samu as they looked to get more of a foothold in the game, but the hosts remained the more dangerous side as the teams went into the break with the score 17-5 after Hodge dropped a 66m penalty attempt just short at the death.
It was more of the same after the break, with Australia unable to stop the Boks getting over the gain line, and Kurt-Lee Arendse stretched the lead on 50 minutes as he fought his way through contact to dot down in the corner to complete his hattrick. Things got even worse for the visitors just minutes later as Dave Porecki was sent to the bin for pulling down a maul that was destined for the try line after finding himself isolated against a 4-man drive, resulting in a penalty try. Libbok thought he had a try of his own moments later as Suliasi Vunivalu lost the ball in contact following a scrappy lineout, only for replays to show that Pieter-Steph du Toit had knocked the ball on in the tackle with Vunivalu. The game became somewhat of a mess as the substitutions broke the flow of he match, but South Africa remained dangerous and were unlucky not to add another try as Quade Cooper just managed to hold du Toit up over the line. However when the fly half’s goal line drop-out sailed straight into touch, the Boks took advantage of the 5m scrum to attack th blind side, with Vunivalu’s deliberate knock-on denying Arendse a fourth try, resulting in a second penalty try for the hosts and a yellow card for the wing. And with just 5 minutes remaining, du Toit finally found his way over with the simplest of pick and go carries on the line against 14 men who looked out for the count. With the game long ovr as a competition, Carter Gordon marked his Test debut with a length of the field try at the death, but even that and his conversion were little consolation for the Wallabies as they walked off the Loftus Versfeld pitch reeling form a 43-12 humiliation.
Proving ground
With the Rugby World Cup just months away, these games are vital for players trying to work their way into the tournament squad or convince Jacques Nienaber that they deserve to keep their current spot. With that in mind, there were a number of big performances from players.
Former Ireland international Jean Kleyn and Marvin Orie put in impressive performances at lock to keep their names in contention despite the depth South Africa have at the position, which was just highlighted by the impressive return of RG Snyman for his first cap since the RWC2019 final following a couple of seasons ruined by injury. Meanwhile in the back row, Duane Vermeulen and Pieter-Steph du Toit were looking back to their old selves after looking somewhat off the pace in recent Test windows.
Meanwhile in the backs, André Esterhuizen put in his best performance in a Test match for years after often struggling on his occasional injections into the XV, being the physical carrier in midfield while also varying the game well with his passing and kicking. And as for Libbok, he may have had a couple of ugly kicks out of hand early on, but grew into the match and controlled the team well as they continued to cause the Australians problems.
If players can continue to reach these levels of performance, I don’t envy Jacques Nienaber when it comes to telling some super talented players that they haven’t made it onto the plane to France.
Soft punches
What really stood out against this Springboks team full of carriers is just how ineffectual the forward carriers were for the Wallabies. So much of the gameplan from them appeared to be either get the ball wide ahead of the blitz, or kick the ball away, which is so pathetically limited from a Tier 1 nation. Will Skelton was making a nuisance in defence, but in attack he was being completely ignored, despite his ability to carry over the gain line, while Rob Valentini also found his time on the ball limited.
That said, things didn’t really get much better when Valentini did get a chance to carry. For such a big strong boy, he seemed hesitant to get at the opposition. From one of the South African drop-outs, he was given the ball with a run-up of about 20 metres before contact, but barely appeared to get out of second gear, while when carrying off the back of a scrum on his own 22 at the hour mark, he was sent flying by the slightest contact from Duane Vermeulen, who thoroughly outplayed him.
While the occasional quick spread out wide will be successful—like Koroibete’s opener—Australia need a much more structured attacking game that relies on hard carries in midfield to create quick ball to let the backs have space ut wide or kick when on the front foot.
Eyes on the Ball 