The Springboks really silenced critics the world over but specially in New Zeeland and Australia after it was alleged the last few weeks that the Springboks play “boring rugby”. With a brilliant display of clinical, running rugby, the Bokke demolished the Ozzmob yesterday, winning 32 / 15, scoring 4 tries in the process and with a scoreline flattering the Wallabies somewhat.

The Springboks came out of the blocks flying and absolutely focussed.

First the magnificent Fourie du Preez, playing in his 50th Test, scored after taking a quick tap penalty, 10m from the Wallabie line and catching the confused Ozzies totally off guard. His try was duly converted by Morne Steyn.

Then Jaque Fourie ran through a barn door gap and scored under the sticks (without being touched) from a set phase, the scrum, with an obviously practiced set move, which worked to perfection. Morne Steyn was too casual in taking the conversion and it bounced off the right hand upright, not going over.

Matt Giteau missed two easy Penalty kicks in relative rapid succession after it looked like Bryce Lawrence, the referee was really looking to punish the Bokke and favouring the Wallabies.

Morne Steyn made the score 15 / 0, kicking a fairly challenging Penalty….. by now only 17 minutes had passed and it looked like the Springboks were going to run riot.

At this initial stage the Wallabies were guilty of the most shocking handling we have seen from them for a while. A large number of South African supporters in the Perth crowd were obviously enjoying every minute.

Matt Giteau finally managed to wobble a Penalty over the crossbar, making the score Bokke 15 / Wallabies 3.

The Springboks kept their composure, structure and control and Bryan Habana galloped through for a marvelous try after an up-and-under kick was brilliantly followed up by Jean de Villiers, causing yet another fumble by the bewildered Ozzmob, spilling the ball into Habana’s hands and him jet-shoeing his way around what was left of any semblence of remaining defense. Yet again Morne Sten converted.

The score was now an embarassing 22 / 3, the Bokke already having scored 3 tries.

At this stage one could already see the dejection on Robbie Deans’ face and feel the way the All Blacks and their supporters were cringing with the thought that their race for the Tri-Nations trophy was fast coming to an end.

Just before the hooter, Matt Giteau kicked another Penalty, to make the score Bokke 22 / Wallabies 6 at Halftime.

After the start of the second stanza, the Wallabies used the up-and-under kick a bit more and tried to obviously emulate the recipy which had worked for the Bokke in previous weeks. Hard work and lots of phase play was rewarded for the Wallabies when the slippery Giteau wormed his way through from 10m out, to score a very well worked try. The conversion was a formality.

With the score now 22 / 13, suddenly the score started looking more respectible for the Wallabies and I could not help but have an inkling of doubt in my mind whether the Bokke would try to defend the lead.

Replacements were brought on, Schalk Burger for Juan Smith, with old Schalla returning from the long eye-gouge ban he had suffered. He was immediately industrious, yet careful.

The game see-sawed for a while until the Bokke started mounting pressure on the Wallabie line and Habana dropping a ball 2 m out, in the left hand corner. The players were called back for a Bokke scrum, 10m out, having played for advantage from a Wallabie knock-on. From this set phase a sublime move followed, with Spies picking up from the scrum, passing to Fourie du Preez, Du Preez passing to Habana (with Jean de Villiers running a brilliant dummy runner line).. and Habana running through untouched for his second try. Morne Sten once again made no mistakes and the score ballooned to 29 / 13.

This of course, was the bonus point try for the Bokke and it looked like some records were going to be broken on the afternoon… it was looking like Australia was heading to suffer their largest Bokke pummeling ever in Australia.

The Bokke made it 32 / 13 with another Morne Steyn Penalty.

With 8 or 10 minutes to go however the Bokke management fell into the same trap as during the Lions Tour and the substitutions came on thick and fast. Januarie for Fourie du Preez, Bekker for Bakkies Botha, Frans Steyn for Ruan Pienaar, Adi Jacobs for an injured J P Pietersen and Jannie du Plessis for our captain, John Smit. Oh and the 1-minute man, Chilliboy Ralapele came on for the Battleship, Bissy.

At this stage Australia had rallied and were putting phase after phase together and the “Fresh feet” on the paddock for the Bokke obviously still had “Frozen Bench Brain”.

Matt Giteau scored another try, quickly tried to take a drop goal conversion, missed amd the score was 32 / 18.

Three minutes from the final hooter Andries Bekker injured his left shoulder and should have been replaced but he had to continue in the game because there was nobody left on the bench to replace him. He was clearly suffering and one could see that his left arm was useless.

The Ozzmob mounted attack after attack and finally broke through, for Turner to score a try, with no time left on the clock. Giteau converted the try, to make the score Bokke 32 / Wallabies 25.

This was ultimately the final score line, Bokke getting 5 Tri-Nations Log Points and the Wallabies getting a solitary 1 Log popint for loosing with 7 or less.

The 32-25 result leaves the South Africans unbeaten in the Tri Nations and with one hand on the trophy.

The loss continued the Wallabies’ woeful streak – their fourth consecutive defeat this year and their sixth in a row in the championship, equalling their worst run of losses in the history of the Tri-Nations from a sequence between 2004-06.

After the match, Robbie Deans, coach of the Wallabies, said he was not surprised by the Springboks’ effective change of tactics.

“They’ve always been a side that’s been capable of playing any which way they choose but their first priority is to win the Tri-Nations and they have done it and they have done it convincingly,” he said.

Deans defended some of his team’s basic errors due to the pressure brought onto to them by South Africa.

“Springboks don’t make it easy … and they punish you when you turn it over.”

Deans was particularly upset the Wallabies conceded two tries from scrums and blamed poor talk in defence.

“It shouldn’t happen.”

While Deans was disturbed at conceding the tries to Fourie and Habana’s second, both from Du Preeze passes after scooting off the scrum, the Springboks were baffled why they were often penalised at the set piece.

Captain John Smit described the treatment they received from referee Bryce Lawrence, who awarded Australia 15 to just four for the Spiringboks, as “bizarre”.

“It was a bit of a lottery out there to be honest and sadly the numbers weren’t coming up for us,” Smit said.

Points:

South Africa 32: Fourie du Preez, Jaque Fourie, Bryan Habana (2) tries; Morne Steyn 3 conversions and 2 penalties.

Australia 25: Matt Giteau (2), Lachie Turner tries; Giteau 2 conversions and 2 penalties.