Ellis Park epic delivers a powerful adrenaline shot to Australian rugby

The Guardian

3 days ago

With their mindblowing comeback victory over the world champion Springboks, Australian rugby has issued a warning shot to the world: the Wallabies are back. That fragile prophecy, oft-imagined yet rarely voiced across two decades of regress, is now being fulfilled thanks to coach Joe Schmidt assembling a team of characters, with incredible character, capable of winning the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia.
The epic at Ellis Park has delivered a powerful adrenaline shot to rugby's heartland.
There had been epic comebacks before, notably the 'greatest Test ever played' in 2001, where the Wallabies leaked three tries to the All Blacks in the first five minutes. 'We haven't had the ball yet, boys,' captain John Eales calmly told his men at 24-0. 'Let's get the ball and we'll use it.' Before a world record 107,874 crowd in Sydney, Australia roared back to 24-all at half-time before going down 39-35 at the death.
Then there was Michael Cheika's dressing room spray in 2018. Trailing 31-7 at half-time to Argentina – already the most points ever conceded to Los Pumas – Australia's coach unleashed in the sheds, scruffing players' collars to demand pride in the jersey. The Wallabies responded in style, detonating five tries in 22 minutes to run out 45-34 victors and cementing the biggest international comeback by a tier one nation.
But Sunday's game in Johannesburg will live long in the memory. In the first 20 minutes, the Wallabies were the team fans have wept over for so long – spilling kicks, sliding off tackles and squandering their limited opportunities with risky plays executed poorly. Yet the team's steely resolve to trust the game plan despite being blown away early and the ruthlessness to keep attacking after reeling in a 22-point lead was new.
All week Schmidt had been pilloried for recalling James O'Connor from a three-year international exile to steer his young Wallabies side as playmaker.
After shucking some early rust, O'Connor's ice in the fire galvanised his teammates. 'There was no loss of belief. The Boks were clinical,' the 35-year-old later shrugged. 'That first 20 minutes, when they were going sideline to sideline, they were pulling us apart. Every error we made, they made us pay and showed what they could do.'
Will Skelton had given the Wallabies a 2025 credo at half-time in the third Lions Test: 'We take no itshay.' Having weathered a three-try shitstorm, the men in gold did what great sides do: kept calm and set about dishing out some itshay of their own.
'We could see the opportunities, see the space,' O'Connor said. 'We had to stay engaged, stay in the fight, build our way back in. We knew we were capable. There's a strong belief in this group. We just had to play our rugby and take our moments.'
An hour of magic moments followed, as the Wallabies delivered a six-try blitz that left home fans stunned. At 22-0, flanker Fraser McReight stopped the bleeding with a crucial steal in the 18th minute. Ten minutes later winger Dylan Pietsch speared onto an O'Connor pass from a Len Ikitau break to get Australia on the board. Desperate defence then defied the Springbok's battering rams until half-time.
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Australia had gone into this Test not having beaten South Africa at home in 14 years. Yet their force of belief and refusal to buckle to scoreboard pressure rattled the world champions. When captain Harry Wilson scored early in the second half and then Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, who didn't touch the ball in the first 27 minutes, plucked an intercept and raced 60-metres to score, a Wallabies comeback for the ages was on.
'They beat us in most departments,' Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus said. 'We didn't scrum them, they beat us in the lineouts, they bullied us at the breakdown. They physically dominated us, and the interesting thing is that the longer the game went on they were supposed to struggle, but it shows what Joe Schmidt is building.'
From a vanquished enemy, to Wallabies players and fans there is no greater praise.
Smashing the British & Irish Lions at home in a dead rubber was sweet. But humiliating rugby's No 1 team at a foreign fortress not conquered since 1962, was Lazarus with a triple bypass stuff. After so many years as the heartbreak kids of Australian sport, the Wallabies showed they can still beat the best in the world.
Having hauled themselves out of debt with the windfall from the Lions tour, Rugby Australia now has a financial platform and a famous performance to rebuild the code and galvanise floating sports fans around the triple crown quest: beat the All Blacks to reclaim the Bledisloe Cup for the first time since 2002, snatch a first Rugby Championship title since 2015, then win a World Cup for the first time since 1999.
For the Wallabies there is only next week, a return bout in Cape Town, a sterner Test. 'We know what's coming,' said Skelton. 'They're going to punch us in the face.' For O'Connor, it's a challenge he relishes. 'It's the world champs, they're wounded… it'll be brutal. They're going to meet us in the trenches but we want to see where we're at. We'll be going after it. We always go after it. You can't not go after it.'