Australia downed, and out!

South Africa head to Dunedin with all to lose

South Africa held off a ferocious second-half assault to sucker-punch Australia with a second Bryan Habana try and win their Tri-Nations encounter 22-19 in Australia, their first win there for seven years.

Bryan Habana was the hero for the Boks with two breakaway tries, one at each end of the game, and the Bok defence was again the key to victory.

South Africa now stay top of the Tri-Nations Championship with three wins from three matches.  The Wallabies stay bottom with just two bonus points from four matches.

The Wallabies made most of the running in the match putting the ball through many phases with the patience their coach Eddie Jones had asked for but the Springboks scored two tries to their one.  Both Springbok tries were scored by speedster Bryan Habana, both when the Wallabies knocked on when hot on the attack.

The Wallabies had most of the possession as they threw into 24 line-outs, the Springboks just eight.  This time, by and large, the Wallaby line-out worked.  It worked near the front partly thanks to Bill Young who moved into Victor Matfield and co. somewhat suspiciously, and when Matt Dunning replaced Young just before half-time he took over what was obviously a spoiling tactic.

The Wallabies also had the best individual runs of the match, notably by Morgan Turinui and, on one brilliant occasion, Drew Mitchell.

Percy Montgomery's goalkicking was not up to his usual standard.  He goaled three penalties and a dropped goal but missed three penalties and two conversions.  Two of the penalties missed bounced off the crossbar.

The Wallabies suffered a setback even before the kick-off when Elton Flatley withdrew because of double vision.  Morgan Turinui moved to inside centre, Clyde Rathbone came off the bench to outside centre and Adam Ashley-Cooper came onto the bench.

From the second line-out of the match -- and the Wallabies threw in to 12 in the half to the Springboks' four -- The Wallabies launched a great attack until, facing a tackler, David Lyons knocked on.  Schalk Burger scooped up the ball and played to his left -- to Jean de Villiers, to Jaque Fourie to Bryan Habana about ten metres from his line.  The rapid wing set off down the field and did not really look in danger of being caught as first George Gregan and then Lote Tuqiri covered.  Percy Montgomery missed the conversion as he did his first two penalty attempts.

The Wallabies paid dearly for a penalty count that went 9-5 against them in the half, but the Springboks also suffered the absence of Breyton Paulse in the sin bin.  During his absence the Springboks scored three points.  The Wallabies' only points were the penalty for Paulse's infringement of coming in the side and kicking the ball when it was on its way back to the attacking Wallabies.

Two of the South African penalties were against Young at scrums.

When Jean de Villiers was penalised for slowing the ball down at the tackle, Matt Giteau goaled a little unsteadily, and for the rest of the match Mat Rogers did the kicking.

Montgomery goaled his first penalty when Rathbone was penalised at a tackle.  That made the score 8-3 to the Springboks after 17 minutes.

When Paulse wandered off to the sin bin, Rogers kicked the penalty goal from far out on his left and it was 8-6 after 120 minutes.

When Al Baxter copped a tough penalty at a tackle, Montgomery made it 11-6 and then extended the lead to 14-6 just before half-time when Tuqiri and others were off-side.

The off-side occurred during a hectic Springbok attack.  First Schalk Burger ran off the back of a line-out and after interpassing the Springboks went wide to their left but a long, wayward pass from André Pretorius squandered a huge overlap.  Habana footed the pass on and a five-metre scrum ensued when Drew Mitchell played it back from the field of play to touch-in-goal.  Young was penalised at the scrum but the Springboks opted to scrum again and attacked to their right where the off-side occurred.

The Wallabies had the better of the second half starting with a long, mazy run by Mitchell when the Springboks were attacking.  He beat five tackles until De Villiers caught him, but that brilliant run seemed to inspire the Wallabies who hammered at the Springbok defence.  When Os du Randt was penalised at a tackle/ ruck, Rogers goaled and it was 14-9.

John Smit won a turnover from his opposing captain George Gregan and the Springboks looked set to score till Rathbone caught Paulse from behind.

The Wallabies had a scrum there but under pressure Mitchell did not find touch.  Paulse passed infield to Montgomery who took his time, concentrating and dropping a long goal.  17-9.

Soon afterwards the Wallabies had their best moment.  From a line-out Turinui burst over Pretorius and when tackled fed Rathbone with a short pass to his right and Rathbone scored under the posts. 

Rogers converted.  17-16 with 29 minutes to play.

Still the wallabies attacked as the Springbok defence looked leaky.  When Bakkies Botha was penalised at a tackle, Rogers missed but when Botha was penalised for a collar tackle, Rogers goaled and the Wallabies led 19-17 with 19 minutes to go.

The home side was the attacking side but they suffered a devastating blow when within striking distance of clinching the victory.  Rogers was the player who knocked on this time.  Montgomery picked up and passed to his left.  Jaco van der Westhuyzen, on for Pretorius, fed Fourie who gave to Habana who sped down the touch-line, beating speedy Mitchell to score the try which won the match.

This means that South Africa will need to do what no Springbok team has done -- win a test at Carisbrook -- in order to win the Tri-Nations 2005 and retain their title won in 2004.

Man of the Match:  For Australia Clyde Rathbone, Dan Vickerman and Mat Rogers had great performances.  Two Springboks certainly stood out even above Jaque Fourie, Enrico Januarie and John Smit -- Juan Smith who was brilliant in the line-outs, with the ball in hand and in the tackle and Bryan Habana, whose defence was excellent.  But it was his two tries that made the big difference in the end to make him our Man of the Match!

Moment of the Match:  Bryan Habana's second try.  It was harder than the first one and its timing made it the vital score of the match.

Villain of the Match:  Presumably it was Breyton Paulse for his yellow card but it was hardly villainy.  Then Bill Young's shenanigans may have been more calculated villainy.

The scorers:

For South Africa:
Tries:  Habana 2
Pens:  Montgomery 3
Drop goal:  Montgomery

For Australia:
Try:  Rathbone
Con:  Rogers
Pens:  Rogers 3, Giteau

Yellow card:  Breyton Paulse (South Africa, 19)

Australia:  15 Drew Mitchell, 14 Mat Rogers, 13 Clyde Rathbone (Adam Ashley Cooper, 75), 12 Morgan Turinui, 11 Lote Tuqiri, 10 Matt Giteau, 9 George Gregan (Chris Whitaker, 69), 8 David Lyons, 7 Phil Waugh (George Smith, 69), 6 Rocky Elsom (John Roe, 24-39, 61), 5 Nathan Sharpe, 4 Daniel Vickerman, 3 Al Baxter, 2 Brendan Cannon, 1 Bill Young (Matt Dunning, 42-55, 61).
Unused replacements:  16 Stephen Moore, 18 Mark Chisholm.

South Africa:  15 Percy Montgomery, 14 Breyton Paulse, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Jean de Villiers, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Andre Pretorius (Jaco van der Westhuyzen, 61), 9 Ricky Januarie (Fourie du Preez, 55), 8 Joe van Niekerk, 7 Juan Smith, 6 Schalk Burger, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Bakkies Botha (Albert van den Berg, 65), 3 CJ van der Linde, 2 John Smit (captain), 1 Os du Randt (Gurthro Steenkamp, 58).
Unused replacements:  16 Hanyani Shimange, 19 Jacques Cronjé, 21 Wayne Julies.