Bob's Boks are back and on track

Doc Craven once said that a draw was like kissing your sister but that is an inappropriate image to evoke after one of the hardest and most passionate test matches of the modern era.

Indeed, the only "kiss" that is worthy of mention after this 14-all draw in an at times brutal showdown between Australia and the Springboks is the surname of the South African defensive coach, Les Kiss.

If ever a match was won on defence, this was it. Well, okay, it was a draw but you know what I mean. Time and again the Australians threatened to burst the Bok defensive system open but were held out by a committed and well organised wall that simply gave nothing away.

When the Australians did score their try, the first against the Boks since the match against Italy at the end of June, it came when South African skipper Bob Skinstad was off the field. So did one of the penalties, which effectively means that the Aussies scored over half their points in a low scoring game while the opposition were reduced to 14 men.

If anyone got anything wrong on the day it was Australian captain John Eales. He said in the post-match television interviews that his team had not retained their form of the previous week and had played below par. What he should have said was that his team played as well as they were allowed to.

Before the Boks started knocking them back, the Aussies looked razor sharp in the initial stages and this was not an occasion when they can be accused of underestimating their opponents.

While the Aussies were the team pressing for victory at the end, the fact the Springboks were forced to play half the second half with only 14 men means they can consider themselves unlucky not to have picked up full points for the victory.

What of the sin-binning of Bob Skinstad and Butch James? Those who criticise the Springboks and say they only have themselves to blame for lacking discipline will have a point. But both decisions were also marginal, perhaps James' slightly less so.

Skinstad did on occasion hover rather close to the boundary of what was permissable and what was not. But then, as every modern international loose- forward would confirm, there is a lot of grey area. And the role that Skinstad played on the day in messing up Australian ball was the role that his position demanded against that opposition.

For the rest, he again led the team brilliantly. He certainly is an inspirational figure as captain and much of the Bok turn-around in the past six weeks can be attributed to the clarity and decisiveness of his decision making and the charisma he brings to the leadership.

On the televised evidence, there should not be a person in South Africa (or anywhere) who would dare to question now the commitment of the players who play under him. The togetherness which had been alluded to all week by the scribes following the tour was put on show for all to see at the Subiaco Oval.

And while Matt Burke, the Australian goalkicker, won't remember Perth with any great fondness when he one day looks back on his career (it is the second time in two appearances there that he has botched an Aussie win by missing easy kicks), there are surely now no longer any question marks over whether the Boks are back.

Unlike Loftus three weeks earlier, there were no mitigating factors which can be pointed at to deflect the gloss from the Bok victory. Stephen Larkham was in the Wallaby No10 jersey and Steve Walsh blew far more favourably for the Wallabies than Dave McHugh had in the first game.

If anything it was the Boks who should have been asking questions of some of his decisions afterwards. On the day the Wallabies had marginally the better of the 50/50 calls and as Skinstad said afterwards it was not refereeing they were used to (although I would counter that perhaps it was what they should have expected with a southern hemisphere man in charge).

And if the Wallaby fans can perhaps lament those missed Burke kicks, so too can the Boks look back and rue some uncharacteristic misses from Braam van Straaten, who was clearly not happy with the Summit ball in use in matches in Australia.

When it mattered, though, Van Straaten was bang on target. Given what he said about the Sterling Mortlock kick which cancelled out a humungous effort from him at ABSA Stadium this time last year, I wonder if the Western Province player will again lament the fact that an Aussie (this time Burke) got an opportunity to cancel out his bid to be a national hero.

But even if the Boks did not pick up the win they were looking for, they have every justification to regard themselves as heroes. Twice in the space of three weeks they have played the world champions to a standstill.

Regardless of what happens from here, they will look back on a year where the Wallabies never headed them and in that respect they made a rather better job of facing up to John Eales and his men than the New Zealanders and British Lions.

Lest it be forgotten too, the Boks played most of the match without Robbie Fleck, the man who was to be the central figure in many of their attacking moves at the back.

Fortunately Butch James, despite his yellow card, chose this moment to come of age as an international flyhalf. And Dean Hall, Conrad Jantjes and the energetic Breyton Paulse all committed themselves well on both attack and defence.

The only downer for the Boks apart from their failure to secure the win is the fact that it is becoming more and more likely that they may get to rue that James miss at Newlands which would have secured them a bonus point against New Zealand.

Unless the Boks win and pick up a bonus point against the All Blacks in Auckland next week, the Aussies will find themselves needing just to win at Stadium Australia in the final match if they are to win the trophy.

The only other thing that can stand in the way of that scenario is if the All Black pick up five at Eden Park. On Saturday's evidence, that is not very likely.