TRI-NATIONS SERIESAustralia 39 South Africa 20:AUSTRALIA'S VICTORY in Sydney on Saturday was built on a much improved performance by the forwards but it was the flair of the young backline which caught the eye and on which the Wallabies' World Cup hopes rest.
Halfbacks Quade Cooper and Will Genia were behind most of the best Wallabies moves in the Tri-Nations opener, attacking the Springboks with pace and variety and linking well with the back three of Kurtley Beale, James O’Connor and Digby Ioane.
Their bright performance went some way to banishing the memory of last week’s humiliating defeat to Samoa and, with a few more passes going to hand, they could have scored even more than the five tries they ran in.
“Rugby’s never a perfect game, I’m very happy with the attitude of the boys and the way everyone just kept backing up,” outhalf Cooper said after the game. “We could have scored a few more tries but also there was a few ones we did make. Like that try James O’Connor did could have been a knock on and it was great skill to scoop that up and score it.”
Although a youthful band – Cooper and Genia are 23, O’Connor is 21 and Beale 22 – the key backs are brimming with confidence. “It’s great to be playing with those boys again,” Cooper said of O’Connor and Beale. “The skill that they show – we’re great mates away from football and I think that shows out on the field. The amount of time we spend together gives us a good understanding of where we are out on the field. We’re just having fun.”
Cooper and his coach Robbie Deans also lauded the efforts of another 23-year-old, Pat McCabe, who had a strong game at inside centre in just his third Test. “He goes hard and that’s what you want from your centres, guys who are fronting up in attack and defence and he’s one of those sort of guys,” said Cooper.
Genia, the standout player of the Super Rugby season, may be in his early 20s but he plays like a much more experienced scrumhalf and he again showed how vital he is to Wallabies success both in organising the forwards and sparking the backs. “He’s a good player, he’s a threat around the edges, he again showed today,” admitted Springboks skipper John Smit. “He keeps guys busy and he forces defenders to make decisions so he’s a pretty good player.”
Another plus for the Wallabies was the kicking of O’Connor, who converted six of seven attempts.
Australia headed up to the Gold Coast yesterday for two weeks to prepare for their match against the All Blacks in Auckland on August 6th.
The world champions will take some solace from more than 20 of their frontline players being back in South Africa nursing injuries but they will have to up their game considerably if they are to avoid humiliation against the All Blacks next week.
“It was disappointing but it could have been uglier,” said Smit, who scored a late consolation try to celebrate his 103rd Test cap. “What I enjoyed about this younger side is they chased to the death. There were some tries going begging for the Wallabies, and there was a lot of guts chasing to make sure it didn’t happen.”
Injury problems continued to mount for Peter de Villiers, who has called up uncapped lock Gerhard Mostert to join the touring party in Sydney after a string of injuries to second row forwards.
Johann Muller, who has played 23 Tests, returned to South Africa yesterday after failing to recover from a hamstring injury that forced him to withdraw from the team to play Australia earlier in the week.
Another lock, Flip van der Merwe, injured his ribs in the opening minute on Saturday and had to be taken off in the first half while Muller’s replacement Alistair Hargreaves suffered an abdominal strain during the match.
That all came after Andries Bekker was ruled out of the World Cup on Saturday because he requires surgery for a ruptured ankle tendon.
AUSTRALIA: Beale; O'Connor, Ashley-Cooper, McCabe, Ioane; Cooper, Genia; Kepu, Moore, Alexander; Simmons, Horwill; Elsom, Pocock, McCalman. Replacements: S Faingaa, Cowan, Sharpe, Hodgson, Higginbotham, Phipps, A Faingaa.
SOUTH AFRICA: Aplon; Basson, de Jongh, Olivier, Mvovo; M Steyn, Pienaar; Greyling, Smith, Kruger; van der Merwe, Hargreaves; Stegmann, Rossouw, Johnson. Replacements: Ralepelle, van der Linde, Kankowski, Deysel, McLeod, Jacobs, Lambie.
Referee: C Pollock(New Zealand).
