What a performance! The hoodoo of the 100^th test has been broken, and no more fitting than being that of the great Victor Matfield at the stronghold of Bulls rugby, Loftus Versfeld.

Article written by Met Uysh

No doubt, early on we were left with dejavu of that day when the All Blacks beat us at the same ground in the game which got know as the Van Riebeeck test, where SA lost 16-52. But South Africa stuck to their guns and rose like a proverbial phoenix out of the fire and left us all with something to smile about around the Saturday night fires.

Some of the players took a stab back at their critics by picking up their performances from the last 4 defeats. But one who couldn’t is Bryan Habana. He has in fact confirmed his critics’ view that he is not an option anymore for us at left wing.

As soon as we got back into the match after two early tries by the Australians, Habana gifted James O’Connor a try by spilling the kick-off. Later on again, Habana got panicky and tried to run a ball kicked close to his goal line past two defenders, with Frans Steyn’s monster boot in support, and with the Springboks not quick enough to match the speed of O’Connor, Beale and Mitchell resulting in a lack of numbers to assist Habana, we lost the ball and Australia dived over for another try.

Struggling and off the pace.

I have no doubt in my mind that these two instances resulted in a scoreline that have flattered Australia. Australia scored freakish tries. The two described above, and then also the one where Beale got past Jaque Fourie with nifty footwork, breaking our defensive line and nearly finishing it off himself. The only try of real substance was their first by Will Genia, where the Aussies managed to put together phases and Genia finally broke Matfields poor attempt and dived over the line.

In contrast, South Africa scored their tries from cleverly set up and well thought out play. Juan Smith’s try was one of those, when he ran a perfect angle off an attacking ruck and Hougaardt timing his pass to perfection. Our second try was again the result of a well worked line out plan. Much like in Brisbane, and this time Australia nearly stopped it, but Guthro still managed to power over the line. Our third try scored by Pierre Spies was the result of an excellent build up through a large number of phases (I think it was about 13?) and when the Australian spoiling tactics nearly cost us the ball, Hougaardt recovered brilliantly to send Spies over the whitewash. Our fourth try was mainly the result of excellent defense by Butch James, and Hougaardt winning quick ball. We saw a lovely backline move, in which Jaque Fourie played a massive role, and JP Petersen rounded off beautifully.

Yes, the Aussies luck wore off in the second half, despite them riding it beautifully in the opening stages of the match.

Some critics found the match laughable and comic. I do not know which match they were watching. Except for the three freakish tries by the Aussies, I think the Springboks maintained their composure well and answered the Aussies league style Rugby with real Rugby. It is great that, despite the IRB’s attempts to favor Australia by adapting the laws to make Rugby Union a loose game such as Rugby League, (which is far more popular than Union over there), the structured Rugby maintained by the Springboks won the day.

I am not surprised by the nay-sayers who are saying the scoreline flattered us. To be honest, if you made the Aussies jersey’s green and the Springboks jerseys’s gold by some technology when you view a replay of the game, we would have read that the Springboks were lucky to only lose by 13, because we scored three freakishly lucky tries, we created no opportunities through structured play and we had someone whose play resembled the erratic behavior of Earl Rose at flyhalf…and we would have continued to be the laughing stock of rugby, so unstructured was the play. BUt them in fact, that was how the Aussies played, in their gold strip.

Quade Cooper’s erratic style may be suited to League and the way the Reds have played this year, but he was the main cause for the ‘laughable’ rugby which critics are describing and unfortunately they are pointing fingers at the Springboks for this rather than the true culprits, Australia. The bottom line is, that is the way Australia want to play. Structureless, out-of-hand rugby, running the ball from every opportunity and hoping that over-the-top passes , fancy antics and handling trickery will win them games is not very realistic. You have to work for your tries and you have to contend with hard, physical sides like the Springboks.

So if you wonder why the game seemed without structure, just look at Australia. In contrast, the Springboks had a clear plan of how they wanted to play. Running the ball from the Australian half withJean de Villiers the man tasked to break the line, and Juan Smith the man tasked to take the ball up at speed from the rucks are only two of the features of the game that I noticed. We had much more speed at the rucks, getting quicker ball and totally eliminating Pocock as a threat.

I still feel we lack pace in our backline though. I don’t know where the problem starts, but we are just not hitting spaces. Our defensive structures are also not quite there yet. Except for Habana often breaking the line time and time again, we have seen the Australians using O’Connor and Beale to create space in the backline, drawing in Jaque Fourie, leaving JP Petersen exposed on the overlap.

Yes, we have not nearly played as well as we could, and a solid confident performance by Bryan Habana would have perhaps plastered over his glaring lack of form. It is sometimes as if he thinks he is still as fast as he was in 2007, but he isn’t.

The scoreline will no doubt give the Aussies a false sense of confidence ahead of next week’s fixture and we will again have to contain their League style with real rugby. But I have this feeling that the Springboks needed to concede those early tries.  Like a cardiac arrest patient, with one final attempt at reviving his heart after a brave fight against the All Blacks, the heart of the Springboks were revived with the shock of conceding three tries in quick succession.

But this was a much improved performance by the Springboks and a win like this will perhaps do as much as three week’s R&R will do. And at last, a Springbok’s 100^th test match, will at last be one to he wants to remember.