It appears that Robbie Deans wants to call a meeting with the Referee for Saturday’s match, Bryce Lawrence, to nullify certain aspects of the Bokke game. They are very concerned about SA’s kick, charge and bash tactics and the fact that the Bokke are the No 1 ranked team in the world.

Matt Giteau (AFP)

In an Article by News 24 on 27 August, the following was reported

“The Australian coach acknowledged that they were concerned about South Africa’s chasers, notably Bryan Habana and JP Pietersen, encroaching over the offside line before pursuing and smashing opponents under mortar bombs launched from the boot of Du Preez and Morne Steyn.

The Australians also want to try and convince Lawrence not to penalise players for obstruction when they surround the catcher, as they were at Newlands two weeks ago and again in Sydney last weekend.

What we are really concerned about is what he (Lawrence) thinks, said Deans.”

But there is much more that Deans should be concerned about, News 24 goes on to say that Australian playmaker Matt Giteau has been lined up in the crosshairs of Pierre Spies and any Springbok predators lurking to exploit the low trajectory of the No 10s kicks that have been frequently charged down in recent matches, throwing the Wallabies into turmoil.

Australia coach Robbie Deans acknowledged this week that Giteau’ kicks were a source of concern, particularly without the back-up boot of Berrick Barnes, who was on Wednesday ruled out Saturday’s Test in Perth due to concussion.

Giteau himself, who had two kicks charged down in the second half of Australia’s defeat to New Zealand in Sydney last Saturday, admitted that his boot was an issue of concern that he had worked on this week.

“Yeah. I do need to step up a lot and feel that in the last two Tests I have not kicked as well as I would have liked,” he said.

In addition, the Bokke have the feared line-out and lock supremos of Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha and the pocket dinamo fetcher Heinrich Brussouw (with Schalk Burger on the bench), whereas Nathan Sharp of the Wallabies is injured and not available and Rocky Elsom is returning from an injury cloud. Australia’s  big concern is countering the Bokke lineout threat. Chisholm, however, who has only played three club games recently, gave a remarkable insight into how Australia plan to counter Matfield’s astute lineout nous.

“First and foremost the main thing we have to do is slow the lineout down. (At Newlands) we gave Victor (Matfield) and South Africa too much time to see and feel what we were going to do. Now we have to quicken that aspect of the game up,” he said, indicating that there would be many quick throw-ins on Saturday.

The Springboks is a settled side with only one starting change, Ruan Pienaar, in the place of Frans Steyn.

In addition, Fourie du Preez will be playing his 50th Test on Saturday and had the following comment

“I am happy to get here and of course winning the Tri-Nations is important to us, as we’ve only won it twice. But we are still a long way from winning it again, what is required is to know that while we may lose some games, we need to believe we will win more than we lose.

Everybody likes winning rugby and Test rugby is not about just passing the ball to wings. Very few wings score tries in Test rugby running around their opposite numbers.

I believe what we need to play is total rugby. In the post ELVs the game slowed down a bit and defences became tighter, with teams having time to align defences a little more.

We didn’t make the rules and initially, at the Bulls, we struggled. But this year we got on top of them.”

The Wallabie problems are amplified by the fact that Berrick Barnes, the mid-fielder and back-up boot is also injured, he was ruled out on Wednesday due to concussion suffered in the All Blacks Test last week.

In summary it would appear that the Springboks are in a very favourable position against an injury depleted Wallabie side, who are struggling and who have been winless in this year’s Tri-Nations up to date. The only thing hampering S A could be the complacency factor.

I predict a win for South Africa, by 10 or more, claiming the Tri-Nations Cup with weeks to spare in the competition.