AUSTRALIA started the match with a brilliant try and finished with one, but they were very lucky to win. For most of the match, between those spectacular bookends, they handed the initiative to South Africa, gave away too many penalties and were generally second best.
In the end, it was a dubious refereeing decision and a single but catastrophic error by the Springboks that enabled the home side to scrape home. The decision, by George Clancy of Ireland, was to issue Bryan Habana with a yellow card for a high tackle on Adam Ashley-Cooper with 15 minutes remaining.
It wasn’t just that it was cruel to sin-bin Habana in his 100th Test appearance; it was that the tackle was hardly dangerous and that Ashley-Cooper made it look worse than it was. The surprise was that Clancy, who otherwise gave a good performance, stayed with his decision after reviewing the incident.
As a result, Australia had 10 minutes against 14 men to score the 10 points they needed to take a scarcely deserved lead. A penalty two minutes later left them searching for a converted try. Australia’s wave of attacks was thwarted time and again until South Africa were awarded a penalty in front of their own posts.
With Habana eligible to return, a kick to touch was required to relieve the siege. But Morne Steyn, who otherwise had a fine game with the boot, missed touch, which left Habana on the sidelines and gave Australia one further chance to attack. They did so with incisiveness. Israel Folau, who had scored the opening try in the first minute, combined with Kurtley Beale and gave Rob Horne a chance to run at the Springboks’ last line of defence. A sidestep and a burst of speed were enough.
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That error and thrust turned the game on its head. Australia had opened with real intent but South Africa gradually exerted control. The Wallabies had plenty of fire but made far too many errors, giving away penalties from which Steyn took advantage.
The Springboks played a mostly conservative game but did summon one terrific move during the first half in which Jean de Villiers and Jan Serfontein moved the ball to the right wing with speed and sleight of hand for Cornal Hendricks to sidestep inside the last defender to score.
Three points down at the interval, Australia came out charging once more to open the scoring in the second half. A typical drive by Michael Hooper, the best of their forwards, led to a penalty by Bernard Foley which brought the scores level. But instead of dominating with their running game, Australia committed a succession of technical errors that had Ewen McKenzie, their coach, tearing out his hair in frustration.
Three penalties re-established South Africa’s dominance and Australia seemed bereft of ideas until Habana was sent off.
Thus Australia, who were outclassed by New Zealand last time out, chalked up their first win in the Rugby Championship.
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De Villers, who had led his team magnificently as he won his 99th cap, could hardly have been more gracious after an undeserved defeat. “Credit to Australia,” he said. “They scored a fantastic try at the end. We made a couple of bad errors and that cost us.”
He was right in one respect: this was a match which had moments of thrilling class but which was ultimately defined by mistakes.
Star man: Israel Folau (Australia)
Australia: I Folau; A Ashley-Cooper,T Kuridrani, M Toomua, R Horne; B Foley, N Phipps; W Palu (S Higginbotham 61min), M Hooper (capt), S Fardy, R Simmons, S Carter (J Horwill 61min), S Kepu (B Alexander 67min), J Hanson, J Slipper (P Cowan 54min)
South Africa: W le Roux; C Hendricks, J Serfontein, J de Villiers (capt), B Habana; M Steyn, R Pienaar; D Vermeulen, M Coetzee, F Louw (T Nyakane 70min),V Matfield, E Etzebeth (L de Jager 74min), J du Plessis (M van der Merwe 67min), A Strauss (B du Plessis 61min),T Mtawarira (P Lambie 70min)