Rassie Erasmus' highly motivated Springboks should have too much firepower for the Wallabies
The rotund loosehead prop asked the press: 'How do you climb a mountain?' There was no answer from the assembled hacks.
'You don't look at the summit, you look at the first step in front of you, and you make sure you make strong, solid strides,' Nche explained.
In other words, the Boks are desperate to start the Rugby Championship with a statement win over the Aussies, and back it up next week in Cape Town. That would ensure they confidently travel to Auckland for the cliffhanger Test against the All Blacks, and the sequel the following week in Wellington,
The excitement in New Zealand is building. Reports from the Land of the Long White Cloud are that the min-series is being seen as a mini-World Cup, but for the teams to live up to that hype, the Boks must first subdue the plucky Australians, and the Kiwis must overcome the unpredictable Pumas in Argentina.
You would think that a correctly-focused Springbok team, playing at their spiritual home, would have too much firepower for a Wallabies team that, while battle-hardened after the series against the British and Irish Lions, is only a year into its journey as a new team, while the Boks are miles down the road.
They have been building under Rassie Erasmus since 2018. Funnily enough, it was at Ellis Park that the Boks kicked off under Erasmus. They played Eddie Jones' England and at one stage were 20 points behind before rallying and sealing a heroic win in the end.
The bottom line is that Ellis Park is a difficult place for visiting teams to win matches. The Wallabies did it in 1963, but never again. The Australians fare badly on the Highveld, full stop. The last time they won in the rarified atmosphere of the South African hinterland was in Bloemfontein in 2010, when a last-minute Kurtley Beale penalty stole the spoils.
Erasmus's Boks have taken a contrasting road to Saturday's game compared to their opponents. While the Wallabies were on a super highway, fighting for their lives in a hugely hyped series with the Lions, the Boks were on a country road, warming up against bumpkins in the Barbarians, Italy, and Georgia.
As Erasmus said, 'Are the Wallabies battle-hardened or punch drunk?' We will see on Saturday.
'For us, we had a three-week training camp in which we trained probably at a higher intensity than a match, while in the four-match incoming series, we were tested physically but not tactically.
'But playing the teams we did allowed us to grow some nice depth ahead of the Rugby Championship.
'We have never won the Championship or the Tri-Nations (as it was called in the past) back-to-back. We have never done it, going back to the start in 1996. That is how difficult this tournament is,' Erasmus said.
'We have also never in history beaten Australia five times in a row, and they have never won at Ellis Park in the modern era.'
The Wallabies have lost ten of 11 matches played at the Boks' Johannesburg fortress, and only the most passionate Aussie will predict the drought ending on Saturday.
Teams
South Africa — 15 Aphelele Fassi, 14 Edwill van der Merwe, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 André Esterhuizen, 11 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Grant Williams, 8 Siya Kolisi (c), 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Marco van Staden, 5 Lood de Jager, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Ox Nche
Bench: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 18 Asenathi Ntlabakanye, 19 Franco Mostert, 20 Kwagga Smith, 21 Cobus Reinach, 22 Canan Moodie, 23 Damian Willemse
Australia — 15 Tom Wright, 14 Max Jorgensen, 13 Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, 12 Len Ikitau, 11 Dylan Pietsch, 10 James O'Connor, 9 Nic White, 8 Harry Wilson (c), 7 Fraser McReight, 6 Tom Hooper, 5 Will Skelton, 4 Nick Frost, 3 Taniela Tupou, 2 Billy Pollard, 1 James Slipper.
Bench: 16 Brandon Paenga-Amosa, 17 Angus Bell, 18 Zane Nonggorr, 19 Jeremy Williams, 20 Langi Gleeson, 21 Nick Champion de Crespigny, 22 Tate McDermott, 23 Andrew Kellaway.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
TimesLIVE
17 minutes ago
- TimesLIVE
All Blacks hang tough to beat Argentina 41-24
Winger Sevu Reece and substitute hooker Samisoni Taukei'aho scored two tries each as New Zealand saw off an Argentina resurgence to open their Rugby Championship campaign with a 41-24 win in Cordoba on Saturday. Cortez Ratima and Ardie Saves also scored tries for New Zealand while Rodrigo Isgro, Tomas Albornoz and Joaquin Oviedo went over for the home team. Beauden Barrett kicked a penalty and four conversions while Albornoz slotted over penalty and three conversions for a personal tally of 14 points. The All Blacks' superiority showed through, although they had to see off a second-half surge from Argentina who were 31-10 down at the break but fought back to trail 31-24 before New Zealand closed out the match. The visitors were ahead after four minutes as Barrett set the tone with a penalty before Will Jordan's long pass sent Reece over in the corner to put New Zealand 10-0 up inside the opening 10 minutes. Argentina quickly countered with a try of their own as a long pass out to right winger Isgro reduced the lead to three points.
The South African
2 hours ago
- The South African
Rugby Championship LOG after Round 1
Home » Rugby Championship LOG after Round 1 The Wallabies produced arguably their finest comeback in the professional era to defeat the Springboks in Johannesburg. Image: SANZAR The Wallabies produced arguably their finest comeback in the professional era to defeat the Springboks 38-22 in 22-0 after 18 minutes, the Australians were all at sea against a rampant Springboks side. However, the Australians rallied and crossed for 38 unanswered points for their first win in South Africa in over a decade. It was their first victory at Ellis Park in 62 years, with Harry Wilson crossing for a Fraser McReight was immense with several turnovers as a deserving player of the match, typifying the Wallabies' fight in world champions were on their game early as they ran away with the win thanks to a powerful first started with Kurt-Lee Arendse diving over on the corner as the Springboks won several contestable kicks early. Manie Libbok's boot added to the lead before the centre pairing of Jesse Kriel and Andre Esterhuizen set up their second eight Siya Kolisi continued the onslaught as the captain dived over under the posts for the 22-0 the comeback began as the Wallabies delivered a world-class counter-attacking display to haul the hosts started through Dylan Pietsch, with the winger diving over untouched, set up by a loping play from Len Ikitau and an O'Connor injection of Angus Bell at half-time delivered an instant impact when the prop showed off his hands to put Harry Wilson over untouched. When Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii snatched an intercept and raced 60 metres, the Wallabies were down by just three and were growing in confidence by the minute. Stunned, the Springboks kept trying to fire shots and kept being repelled by Wallabies set the platform for Tom Wright to deliver, breaking the line and putting over Wilson for his second and the Jorgensen quickly followed him over, breaking Manie Libbok's ankles with a sharp step off a beautiful James O'Connor long was one of several classy moments from the veteran flyhalf on his return to the Test then sealed the win with eight minutes to go as he capitalised on a Springboks win came at a cost, with captain Wilson limping off with injury, while Pietsch came off second best after a heavy collision with Kolisi. But it's a win that will go down in history for the Wallabies. Meanwhile, New Zealand's Samisoni Taukei'aho scored two late tries to seal a 41-24 Rugby Championship win over Argentina and return the All Blacks to the top of the world rankings on Saturday. Dominant on the scoreboard but cluttered during the third quarter, the All Blacks opened their Rugby Championship campaign with a win in by 31-10 at half-time, the All Blacks struggled as Argentina battled back to 24-31 as loose forwards Pablo Matera and Marcos Kremer, and hooker Julian Montoya, pushed the All Blacks hard while first five-eighths Tomas Albornoz controlled their performance and scored a superb once they cleared their mistakes, the All Blacks looked the dominant side, especially in lineouts where loose forward Tupou Vaa'i, lock Fabian Holland and replacement Patrick Tuipulotu took the loose, Ardie Savea was in his element, and Vaa'i continued his growth on the blindside an exchange of penalty goals to All Blacks flyhalf Beauden Barrett and his opposite Albornoz, the All Blacks put their lineout maul to use for hooker Codie Taylor, Holland, and prop Fraser Newell to each charge at the line before the ball was released to the backs. Fullback Will Jordan passed over the head of his marker for wing Sevu Reece to reel the ball in before it went over the sideline and scored in the eighth minute. Argentina got their first chance in the All Blacks' 22m area and made the most of it with several attempts to break through the middle of the rucks. But it wasn't until they fed their backs that a pass from inside centre Santiago Chocobares was lobbed to wing Rodrigo Isgro, who scored out wide. However, in play after the restart, a cynical foul by prop Mayco Vivas resulted in him receiving a yellow card. It took the All Blacks six minutes, but they finally took advantage after Savea, who was again in his burgling best in mauls, drove through tackles to get ball was moved wide through the backs, where Jordan side-stepped inside a defender to run into space and feed the supporting scrumhalf Cortez Ratima, who scored in the 23rd desperation resulted in them conceding penalties that allowed the All Blacks to kick deep to the corners for lineouts, twice in the last five minutes. First, at their second attempt, it was Savea on the back of a lineout maul who scored in the 37th minute, and then after inside centre Jordie Barrett was used to gain extra distance from inside the All Blacks' half. Another lineout drive allowed Ratima to probe deep into the red-zone, and after centre Billy Proctor and flanker Du'Plessis Kirifi carried on, it was moved wide for Reece to score his second try, two minutes into extra time. The first 10 minutes of the second half were untidy from both sides before the All Blacks made their first substitutions before a scrum 15m from their line. But Argentina struck when replacement scrumhalf Finlay Christie and Jordie Barrett were unable to contain Albornoz, who took advantage, running against the grain, to score under the crossbar. As Argentina lifted the tempo of their game, and utilised more possession, the All Blacks started to concede penalties in their 22m, and the home benefited, with centre Billy Proctor infringed as Matera ran hard to the line, and was sin-binned. Argentina's confidence lifted as it opted to take a scrum from a penalty, and then next used a tap penalty. From that play, it was No 8 Joaquin Alviedo who put the ball down beside a goalpost to get Argentina to 24-31 proved the spark to ignite the All Blacks' response, and it was the choice to kick to the corners from penalties that, at the second attempt, saw replacement hooker Samison Taukei'aho use his strength off the maul to score and put more distance between the sides.A carbon copy in the 73rd minute saw Taukei'aho over again to frustrate the home's was still time for the All Blacks to concede another yellow card when replacement centre Anton Lienert-Brown was involved in a head-on-head clash with Chocobares three minutes from the end. Consistency and fluidity across the game were still elusive for the All Blacks, but they showed that when they were able to gain control, they had too much skill for the Argentinians to contain. Saturday, 23 August South Africa vs Australia, Cape Town Stadium – 17:10 Argentina vs New Zealand, Estadio José Amalfitani – 23:10 (SA time) Let us know by leaving a comment below, or send a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1 Subscribe to The South African website's newsletters and follow us on WhatsApp, Facebook, X and Bluesky for the latest news.
The Citizen
2 hours ago
- The Citizen
All Blacks beat Argentina 41-24 to reclaim top world rank
"We talked about starting well and I think we did that. We finished the second half quite strong - it was a bit of a statement there.' New Zealand's Samisoni Taukei'aho scored two late tries to seal a 41-24 Rugby Championship win over Argentina and return the All Blacks to the top of the world rankings on Saturday. Ahead 31-10 at the interval, New Zealand held off a second-half fightback from the Pumas in Cordoba and ultimately emerged victors by scoring six tries to three. The All Blacks clinched the world number one ranking for the first time since 2021, leapfrogging world champions South Africa, who were stunned 38-22 by Australia in Johannesburg in the tournament opener. Winger Sevu Reece also scored a double for the visitors while fly-half Beauden Barrett kicked 11 points and was a controlling figure with his tactical kicking. Barrett's opposite Tomas Albornoz scored 14 points, including a try, but the Pumas were unable to end their winless record on home soil against New Zealand, which stretches to 15 matches. The result continues an unbeaten start to the year for the All Blacks, who swept France 3-0 in their June home series. All Blacks captain Scoot Barrett said he was pleased with the result but conceded his team had only played well in patches. 'Starting well' 'We talked about starting well and I think we did that. We finished the second half quite strong – it was a bit of a statement there,' said Barrett, whose team fell away badly in the closing stages of several Rugby Championship matches last year. 'In the second half we were a little bit slow and probably a little bit of indiscipline fed their game, which was disappointing and allowed the crowd to get in behind them. 'They threw a lot of punches at us and I'm pleased the guys who finished the game were able to win some arm wrestles, get some territory and most importantly come away with a good win.' Reece scored the opening try after an early Beauden Barrett penalty before Argentina responded, when pressure created an overlap for winger Rodrigo Isgro. Pumas prop Mayco Vivas was shown a yellow card for a professional foul and New Zealand capitalised on their one-man advantage. Fullback Will Jordan sliced through on the halfway line and sent scrum-half Cortez Ratima clear for the best try of the match and a 17-7 lead. The visitors took control late in the first half through a try to back-rower Ardie Savea – arguably the game's best player – followed by Reece's second score. Albornoz kick-started Argentina's second-half rearguard with a tackle-busting try. New Zealand lost centre Billy Proctor to a yellow card and the home side closed to within seven points through a try to back-rower Joaquin Oviedo. However, All Blacks replacement hooker Taukei'aho sucked the energy out of the crowd by barging across to score twice in the last 12 minutes. The teams meet again in Buenos Aires next week.
