Two late drop-goals from François Steyn got South Africa off to a winning start in the 2007 Tri-Nations series, as they sneaked a 22-19 win over a tenacious Australian side at Newlands in Cape Town on Saturday.
That the Wallabies were so close at the end was thanks to two factors -- their resilience on defence and their ability to turn attack into points.
Only on one occasion did they fail to score when they got an attack going.
Apart from Wallaby scoring, the match belonged to South Africa in terms of territory, possession and opportunity. But they, for some unfathomable reason, lacked fluency and cohesion.
Their idea of attacking was chucking the ball to Pierre Spies, Schalk Burger of Jean de Villiers and hoping that tries would come.
When they were going through attack after attack in the earlier part of the first half they did skip-pass after skip-pass regardless of the overlaps nullified. That said it was a long pass -- long but not a skip -- that sent Jaque Fourie racing to the corner fore the Springboks' try.
The Wallabies had some luck. Their try under the crossbar seemed to have been assisted by a gross bit of obstruction -- unintentional but obstruction nonetheless. And spare a thought for Pierre Spies who was trying to get back onside as play sped downfield off a George Gregan chip that bounced fortuitously. Spies was penalised and given a yellow card for an act that had no malice.
It was a lovely winter's day at the Cape -- clear sky, amiable sunshine and Table Mountain sparkling -- a perfect day for rugby. The ground was immaculate, the build-up colourful and noisy, the nearly 50,000 fans pouring in excited good cheer.
The match started at speed and with enterprise and throughout there was attack and counterattack, both sides willing to attack from deep inside their own territory if the opportunity offered.
The Springboks scored first when Capetonian Daniel Vickerman was penalised at a tackle and Percy Montgomery goaled in the second minute of the game.
The Springboks settled into serious attack, but the Wallabies got out of their fix and a penalty against Spies at a tackle gave Stirling Mortlock a chance to level the scores.
Butch James did a clever grubbered kick-off and Juan Smith was racing down the right to set up the attack that ended in Fourie's try in the left corner. After the television match official had had an easy job of advising that it was a try, Montgomery converted from touch. 10-3 after 12 minutes.
They could have gone further ahead when Ruan Pienaar was high and wide from a penalty just inside the Wallaby half.
They could have gone even further ahead when De Villiers broke clean through the middle and, with Fourie on his right, opted to throw a long, horrible pass to Ashwin Willemse, who had a wobbly match. Willemse knocked on.
When Smith tackled high, Mortlock made it 10-6, and soon afterwards Giteau's dubious try made it 13-10 to the Wallabies, which seemed odd in terms of the run of the game.
Giteau came close to scoring near the line when he knocked on at the line. But then Gregan chipped, the ball bounced backwards and Gregan passed into the retreating Spies who was sent to the sin bin.
Just before the break Stephen Moore was penalised at a tackle/ruck and Montgomery goaled. At half-time the Wallabies led 16-10. Schalk Burger was penalised early in the second half and Mortlock made it 19-10 after 44 minutes. For the next 36 minutes the Wallabies did not look like scoring.
Rocky Elsom went off-side and Montgomery made the score 19-16 with 26 minutes to play.
The 26 minutes flew by as the Springboks hurled themselves into attack after attack, seemingly unable to breach the Wallaby lines.
Spies went close with a charge from a scrum and just when things looked good for the home side James grubbered and Lote Tuqiri saved.
From inside their 22 the Springboks used advantage on their left to send Montgomery racing down their right. Montgomery chipped over Julian Huxley but the Wallaby fullback was back to the ball first and scrambled the ball left-footed into touch.
The Springboks had a six-metre line-out. Two penalties for collapsing the maul led to two five-metre line-outs, and still the Wallabies did not break.
François Steyn had replaced Willemse. He got the ball near the half-way line and near the touch-line on his right. He moved forward as the urgent crowd urged him on. He dropped and the ball soared high, dropping from its zenith and over the crossbar. As Stephen Larkham had done to the Springboks at Twickenham in 1999 so Steyn did to the Wallabies at Newlands in 2007 and he followed it up with the winning drop, from closer in but under much great pressure, two minutes from time.
Man of the Match: No doubt about this one at all. It was Schalk Burger who ran with the ball, opassed the ball, tackled the Wallabies, got stuck in at the tackle-ruck and was still back in his own 22 to save a dangerous situation. He was magnificent.
Moment of the Match: François Steyn's first drop for the confident and skill of it.
Villain of the Match: It was not match for innocents and there were a couple of emotional moments which did not get out of hand and added pepper to the spice of the match.
The scorers:
For South Africa:
Try: Fourie
Con: Montgomery
Pens: Montgomery 3
DGs: Steyn 2
For Australia:
Try: Giteau
Con: Mortlock
Pens: Mortlock 4
Yellow card: Pierre Spies (South Africa, 36 -- repeated infringements, offside)
The teams:
South Africa: 15 Percy Montgomery, 14 Ashwin Willemse, 13 Jaque Fourie, 12 Jean de Villiers, 11 JP Pietersen, 10 Butch James, 9 Ruan Pienaar, 8 Pierre Spies, 7 Juan Smith, 6 Schalk Burger, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Bakkies Botha, 3 BJ Botha, 2 John Smit (c), 1 Gurthrö Steenkamp.
Replacements: 16 Gary Botha, 17 CJ van der Linde, 18 Johann Muller, 19 Danie Rossouw, 20 Michael Claassens, 21 Wynand Olivier, 22 Francois Steyn
Australia: 15 Julian Huxley, 14 Drew Mitchell, 13 Stirling Mortlock (c), 12 Matt Giteau, 11 Lote Tuqiri, 10 Stephen Larkham, 9 George Gregan, 8 Wycliff Palu, 7 George Smith, 6 Rocky Elsom, 5 Dan Vickerman, 4 Nathan Sharpe, 3 Guy Shepherdson, 2 Stephen Moore, 1 Matt Dunning.
Replacements: 16 Adam Freier, 17 Al Baxter, 18 Mark Chisholm, 19 Stephen Hoiles, 20 Phil Waugh (vice-captain), 21 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 22 Mark Gerrard.
Referee: Wayne Barnes (England)
Touch judges: Alain Rolland (Ireland), Hugh Watkins (Wales)
Television match official: Simon McDowell (Ireland)
Assessor: Tappe Henning (South Africa)
No comments:
Post a Comment