Durban — At last, an angry Springbok team! And wasn’t it a thing of beauty as the Wallabies got walloped off the park in front of their sold-out audience although there were enough ex-pat South Africans present for there to be a resounding boo each time Nic White touched the ball.
Speaking of whom, it seems he did not learn his lesson from the previous week when his histrionics lost him the respect of the rest of the rugby world because his incessant chirping at the Boks kept stoking the red hot coals which burst into incandescent fire 10 minutes from time when the Makazola Mapimpi try sparked a riot.
Mind you, Willie le Roux was probably just as bad with his stirring and he and White resembled a pair of old women with their knickers in a knot.
🗣️ "I'm so proud of the way we stood up as a group, we knew what we had to do!"
— SuperSport 🏆 (@SuperSportTV) September 3, 2022
𝙈𝘼𝙎𝙎𝙄𝙑𝙀 performance from Siya Kolisi tonight, here's what he had to say on the win. pic.twitter.com/nTiXED1ont
From the first whistle, it was clear that the Boks were on a mission. They had that “gatvol” look about them that they usually have when they have been copping weeks of flak and the unfortunate thing is that it was so predictable that they were going to produce a fire-and-brimstone performance because this is the pattern with the Boks.
They seem to be only able to perform well when their backs are against the wall and this has now become a hackneyed rugby cliché — the Boks disappoint in the game when they have been favourites and then after a sequence of losses they dig deep and rebound with a vengeance.
Playing to a level befitting champions each and every game is the challenge facing this Springbok team and it will also help if Jacques Nienaber stops stuffing around with the team selections and settles on a side that can build winning momentum.
He certainly doesn’t have to look further than this starting pack which was powerfully led by Siya Kolisi. I thought his leadership was lacking in the previous game in Adelaide but, wow, he was immense in this game and led from the front in the same way he did when the Boks beat the British and Irish Lions last year.
When the Springbok forwards are fired up they are a force of nature, they are fearsome to behold, and their Wallabies counterparts were contemptuously brushed aside, so with such gift-wrapped possession, is it such a pity the Boks are often guilty of clumsy execution.
Indeed, this Aussie side should have had 30 put past them by half time such was the utter South African dominance but I guess I shouldn’t be too much of a party pooper because at last the green and gold drought in the Great Outback is over.
So let’s savour this 24-8 win, the first in Australia since 2013 and the first in Sydney since 1993 and let’s pray that Nienaber and Co now consolidate this side, especially the pack, and they go to Argentina in a fortnight’s time and win there to set up a probable opportunity to win the Rugby Championship when they complete their campaign in Durban.
The Boks can certainly do it. They just need to bottle that anger and intensity because when they are annoyed, they can beat anybody anywhere.
IOL Sport