Boots win it for the Boks

Pretorius, Montgomery kick SA to victory

South Africa got their defence of the Tri-Nations off to a winning start at Loftus in Pretoria on Saturday, beating Australia 22-16 thanks to the boots of Percy Montgomery -- with three penalties and a drop goal -- and Andre Pretorius, whose kicking from hand was exemplary.

It was a tense, tactical game, punctuated by moments of brilliance.  Both sides made very few poor mistakes and genuinely open play was not abundant, but those moves that did send the ball wide were often scintillatingly executed.

Australia's disjointed preparations were disrupted still further when David Lyons failed a late fitness test.  John Roe slipped into the No.8 shirt, and the mobile Phil Waugh was called up to No.6 for the Wallabies.  Waugh certainly made a difference in the loose defence, but Lyons' rampaging runs were sorely missed as Australia varied the straight inside pass with a number of well-executed switch moves.  Lyons would have been perfect.

Stephen Larkham sustained an injury in the thirteenth minute as well, meaning Matt Giteau had to share the fly-half duties with him for a while.  Larkham's running did not seem too affected, but Giteau took over the kicking duties from hand, meaning that Australia's moves became slightly more predictable whenever Giteau slotted in at fly-half.  Larkham eventually resumed full kicking duties later in the game, but he was so poor he would have been better-advised to go off.

Australia's moves became fairly predictable anyway.  Once Percy Montgomery had spilled an early high ball, more and more high kicks came his way for Chris Latham and Lote Tuqiri to chase.

It was either that or one of George Gregan, Larkham or Giteau switching inside to a runner from deep.  Out of the box thinking it wasn't, but it was effective, and kept the ball tight.

South Africa had set their stall out to run the ball before the game, and they did spread the ball well, but there was not enough penetration, and often the Boks back-line would be standing too flat to get the momentum going.  Perhaps they would have been better advised to use the boot of Andre Pretorius more -- his kicking was inch-perfect all day.

South Africa opened the scoring in the third minute with a simple Montgomery penalty after George Smith had entered the ruck from the side.  That was it for the first 20 minutes as South Africa probed but failed to find ay cracks in a resolute Wallaby defence.

Indeed it was the Wallabies who although had less of the ball, seemed more likely to do something with it.  Sailor and Smith both went close to the line, and only several interventions by Percy Montgomery -- particularly one on Wendell Sailor in the 15th minute -- staved off the threat.

Australia kept pressing, and after Matt Giteau had slotted a simple penalty for a blatant Fourie du Preez offside, he was given another chance when Chris Latham won an aerial battle with Montgomery and set Tuqiri away.  Tuqiri was brought down and the ruck was slowed down with a hand.  Giteau slotted the penalty for a 6-3 lead after half-an-hour which the Australians just about deserved.

Montgomery squared the game with a wonderful drop goal just after the half-hour, using all of his experience to stop a move that was going nowhere and take his time over the sweetest of strikes.

But Australia delivered what might have been a killer blow right on half-time, when George Smith wriggled through a couple of tacklers and plonked the ball down on the line.  Giteau converted and gave Australia a 13-6 half-time lead.  In a game as tight as this, a seven-point lead looked a big task to claw back.

The second half began much as the first had done, with South Africa enjoying more of the possession but Australia enjoying more of the penetration.  Then came the moment that turned the match.

Bryan Habana drifted over into the line off his wing and produced a mesmerising moment with his hands to take the ball past Turinui.  He then flicked it behind Turinui's back to Montgomery, whose pass to Paulse will be replayed in Rolex advertisements for months to come, so well-timed was it.

Paulse made the 22 remaining metres with something to spare, and Montgomery's conversion brought the teams level with a half-hour to go.

If anything, the game tightened up still more after that, and Australia -- as expected -- began to fade in the thin air and heat, and their aerial storm on Montgomery was brilliantly weathered.  Montgomery will be particularly grateful to Bryan Habana for a superb piece of support which kept four Australian chasers of one such kick at bay, after Montgomery had again won his ball-clutching battle with Latham.

Giteau capitalised on the spell of pressure by firing over a penalty, but Montgomery replied with two more as the Australians ran out of ideas and energy and the Boks grew in confidence.

With the last play of the game, Andre Pretorius dropped a superb goal from 30m to send the deafening Loftus support into raptures.

Man of the match:  Victor Matfield was again king of the line-outs, and George Smith was prominent for disrupting the Boks' possession, but once he had the opening twenty minutes out of the way, Percy Montgomery delivered everything you would want under pressure from an old head in a tight game.  He dealt with all the high balls that came his way, and his tackling and defensive work was fantastic.

Moment of the match:  Bryan Habana's little handiwork in the build-up to South Africa's try, followed by Monty's perfectly-timed pass.  The try was at the perfect time, and set the South Africans on their way to victory.  There was also the support from Habana to Montgomery in the face of four Australian chasers two minutes later, a piece of work which showed just how hungry the Boks were.

Villain of the match:  None

The scorers:

For South Africa:
Try:  Paulse (51)
Con:  Montgomery (51)
Pens:  Montgomery (3, 61, 73)
DGs:  Montgomery (29), Pretorius (80)

For Australia:
Try:  Smith (40)
Con:  Giteau (40)
Pens:  Giteau (22, 27, 58)

Teams:

South Africa:  15 Percy Montgomery, 14 Breyton Paulse, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Jean de Villiers (Wayne Julies, 61), 11 Bryan Habana, 10 André Pretorius, 9 Fourie du Preez (Enrico Januarie, 73), 8 Jacques Cronjé (Schalk Burger, 53), 7 Juan Smith, 6 Joe van Niekerk, 5 Victor Matfield (Albert van den Berg, 67), 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 CJ van der Linde (Gary Botha, 67), 2 John Smit, 1 Gurthro Steenkamp.
Unused replacements:  17 Lawrence Sephaka, 21 Jaco van der Westhuyzen.

Australia:  15 Chris Latham, 14 Wendell Sailor (Drew Mitchell, 73), 13 Morgan Turinui (Stirling Mortlock, 58), 12 Matt Giteau, 11 Lote Tuqiri, 10 Stephen Larkham, 9 George Gregan (captain), 8 John Roe (Rocky Elsom, 77), 7 George Smith, 6 Phil Waugh, 5 Nathan Sharpe, 4 Daniel Vickerman (Mark Chisholm, 72), 3 Matt Dunning (Al Baxter, 48), 2 Jeremy Paul (Stephen Moore, 78), 1 Bill Young.
Unused replacement:  20 Chris Whitaker.

Referee:  Paul Honiss (New Zealand)
Touch judges:  Steve Walsh (New Zealand), Nigel Owens (Wales)
Television match official:  Roy Maybank (England)