South Africa's second biggest lost ever
Australia recorded the biggest ever win over South Africa at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on Saturday, notching up an emphatic 49-0 victory over the thoroughly outclassed visitors. The result also saw the Wallabies overtake the Springboks in third place on the IRB World Rankings.
Even worse, the six tries to nil hammering is the largest defeat by any team in more than 10 years of Tri-Nations history.
And it is second biggest defeat ever suffered by the Boks in more than 100 years of rugby -- only one point less than the 50-point (53-3) hammering they suffered against England at Twickenham in 2002.
This game was billed as bulk versus beauty, South Africa's piano-shifters versus Australia's piano-players. It wasn't quite like that. The Wallabies not only tinkled the ivories, they looked capable of ripping the raw material right off an elephant's face.
The local forwards, clearly stung by the negative press that followed last week's loss in New Zealand, chose to attack the green pack from the off.
The tactic visibly unsettled the Boks who were unable to get a foothold on the damp Suncorp Stadium turf -- conditions that all but the Wallaby forwards believed would favour the big men from South Africa.
How wrong we were!
The Wallabies -- all 15 of them -- came out of the traps more in the manner of Tigger than Roo, bouncing around the pitch with gusto, determined not to allow the rain to ruin their parade.
The visitors, meanwhile, stayed true to their sobriquet, stalking the grass with unease as if acutely aware that any one of their number was just moments away from being chewed up and spat out.
They weren't far wrong. The Wallabies showed all the instincts of the big cats of the highveld and feasted on poor South African kicking, weak defence, naive debutants and shoddy tactics.
They also showed a particular appetite for the lumpy texture of South Africa fly-half Jaco van der Westhuyzen who would have perhaps preferred to spend the day in the depths of the Kruger National Park, tethered to a tree by a strings of sausages.
Australia's final try-tally tells the tale of tape -- three tries to the pack, three to the forward -- total rugby at it's best.
But the floodgates were kicked open by Stephen Larkham who landed a soaring drop-goal from about 30 yards out, taking advantage of the flat-footed Bok backline who were ready to defend against the various running moves that they had read about in the papers.
South Africans were wholly unable to play their rehearsed percentage/territory game as attempted touch-finder after attempted touch-finder failed to cross the line, allowing the Australia's audacious backline plenty of ammunition.
With the soggy conditions drowning a number of early attacks, the Wallabies chose to look to touch themselves and a beautifully worked rolling-maul off a line-out in the corner saw Jeremy Paul flop over the line for the first. Mortlock added the extras.
It was a poignant moment for Australian rugby -- Paul's score not only allowed the gold pack to being to believe in themselves but paid handsome tribute to the memory of another illustrious Wallaby hooker, Paul Mooney, who passed away last month. A minute's silence had marked the death of the doyen of Queensland rugby just prior to kick-off.
The Wallabies' opening try deflated the Boks. Van der Westhuyzen fluffed a clearance before Percy Montgomery spilt an easy "mark", and Mortlock was soon lining up the sticks, slotting a penalty-kick to open up a 13-0 lead after just 20 minutes.
Then came the moment of the game, and perhaps sport's earliest coup de grâce.
A well-taken gold line-out on the gold 10-metre line looked pretty innocuous, but a short pass from George Gregan to Larkham screamed "open sesame" and the green jerseys parted like the Red Sea.
Larkham was off, cutting a line to the corner before turning the back-pedalling Bryan Habana inside out. Gregan was on hand to take the pass and feed Greg Holmes who proved that his recent try against Ireland was no fluke by taking the ball over the whitewash. Mortlock converted as the Boks attempted to understand what was transpiring.
The Wallabies had now warmed to the task and made the most of another spilt ball from Van der Westhuyzen, hacking it on into space.
South Africa debutant Akona Ndungane -- out of his depth opposite Lote Tuqiri -- got back well and gathered the loose ball, but George Smith was on hand to pick the debutant's pocket. Gregan spread possession wide but Bok lock Victor Matfield killed the potential try by swatted the ball away.
Mortlock added three points to his side's tally as Matfield made his way to the sin-bin.
The Australians were clearly enjoying the outing by this stage and the source of their fun was Van der Westhuyzen's channel that lacked the meaty back-up of the injured Schalk Burger.
Another short pass -- this time from Gerrard -- allowed the outstanding Matt Giteau to step past the stricken fly-half and he was under the posts before the Boks could blink. Mortlock added the conversion to leave the Boks 30-0 adrift at the break.
The third quarter of the game saw a slender improvement from the visitors -- they began to concentrated on their strengths and strung together a number of meaningful attacks on the end of a series of meaty mauls.
They also started to catapult their big forwards at the fringes with reasonable effect.
Even their appalling defence began to show some signs of spine, with replacement scrum-half Fourie du Preez managing to hold up replacement scrum-half Sam Cordingley over the line.
But, inevitably, it was the Wallabies who got the next score -- a sublime crossfield kick from Giteau found Tuqiri who popped the ball inside to Latham who in turn sauntered over the line. Mortlock added the extras once again.
Latham then almost followed up his try by creating one, but he fumbled the ball whilst under no pressure whatsoever, and it was a measure of Australia's complete dominance that the unforced error was greeted with laughter by Latham and his mates.
Du Preez then pulled off another try-saving tackle on Nathan Sharpe, but he was soon standing under his posts once again.
Giteau pirouetted out of a tackle before hitting replacement wing Clyde Rathbone with a pass. The SA-born flyer grubbered back inside to the creator of the move who slide over for his second try of the night.
Mortlock, for once, was unable to find the sticks with his conversion attempt -- but he was soon lining up another after Mark Chisholm punctuated another nice Rathbone raid by touching down.
Mortlock bagged the extras, and South Africa's nightmare was complete.
The sound of the All Blacks licking their lips across the "ditch" was almost audible as Paul Honiss called this remarkable game to an end -- South Africa have a date with the New Zealand in Wellington on Saturday. May the heavens have mercy on them.
Man of the match: Plenty of fine performances within the Wallaby rank, with the tenacity of their forwards raising a few eyebrows, and Rocky Elsom proving once again that he is a big-name in the making. And gold medals to each member of the gold backline, with a special mention to Matt Giteau who produced a masterclass on his return from a long lay-off. Perhaps the new Western Force signing is worth all that money ...
Moment of the match: That try from Greg Holmes encapsulated all that was good about this Wallaby performance -- a tidy set-piece followed by cunning then magic then power.
Villain of the match: A few hangbags were swung, but nothing too violent. Enrico Januarie was the worst offender, his claw to Stirling Mortlock's face was unnecessary and underhand. For a comedy moment, we'll opt for Jaco van der Westhuyzen's protestations that a fumbled attempt at a catch was actually an attempted drop-kick; he was about 10 metres outside his own 22 at the time.
The scorers:
For Australia:
Tries: Paul, Holmes, Giteau, Latham, Giteau, Chisholm
Cons: Mortlock 5
Pens: Mortlock 2
DG: Larkham
For South Africa:
None
Yellow card: Victor Matfield (South Africa, 31)
The teams:
Australia: 15 Chris Latham, 14 Mark Gerrard, 13 Stirling Mortlock (vice-captain), 12 Matt Giteau, 11 Lote Tuqiri, 10 Stephen Larkham, 9 George Gregan (captain), 8 Scott Fava, 7 George Smith, 6 Rocky Elsom, 5 Dan Vickerman (vice-captain), 4 Nathan Sharpe, 3 Guy Shepherdson, 2 Jeremy Paul, 1 Greg Holmes.
Replacements: 16 Sean Hardman, 17 Al Baxter, 18 Mark Chisholm, 19 Phil Waugh, 20 Sam Cordingley, 21 Mat Rogers, 22 Clyde Rathbone.
South Africa: 15 Percy Montgomery, 14 Akona Ndungane, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Wynand Olivier, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Jaco van der Westhuyzen, 9 Ricky Januarie, 8 Pierre Spies, 7 Juan Smith, 6 Joe van Niekerk, 5 Danie Rossouw, 4 Victor Matfield, 3 CJ van der Linde, 2 John Smit (captain), 1 Os du Randt.
Replacements: 16 Danie Coetzee, 17 Eddie Andrews, 18 Albert van der Berg, 19 Jacques Cronjé, 20 Fourie du Preez, 21 Meyer Bosman, 22 Breyton Paulse.
Referee: Paul Honiss (New Zealand)
Touch judges: Steve Walsh, Lyndon Bray (both New Zealand)
Television match official: Gary Wise (New Zealand)
Assessor: Steve Hilditch (Ireland)
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