Maybe everyone expects too much

It’s weird how many different planets rugby people appear to inhabit, and how differently people in the same business can see the same game.

Perhaps it comes down to what you anticipated from the opening Tri-Nations test. While most critics were expecting the Boks to win at a canter, that was not my expectation at all. Those who read my preview on the Friday before the game would have seen that I felt a sense of foreboding, and though I predicted a Bok win, I said they would struggle.

This was not based on guess-work, but rather on analysis of the two teams, and what has gone before for both of them so far this season. The two big 50 point wins over England, for instance, were not as good as those scorelines might have suggested.

Apart from the obvious fact that England were under-strength, the Springboks played both of those tests not like a well organised team, but like a group of extremely talented individuals. This is not a criticism, because I would not have expected it to be any different.

Remember, the Boks had only gathered five days before the first test in Bloemfontein, so this was only to be expected. The Boks were no better at Loftus, where they battled in the first half. But it was no worse than what we saw from the other two big southern hemisphere teams, who were not particularly convincing either even though teams such as Wales and France returned to the northern hemisphere well beaten.

The international season proper was always going to start with the first Tri-Nations match, and it was plain from an early stage of the Newlands match that there was a significant lift in intensity from both teams.

Australia, as I wrote in the preview, had a key advantage in terms of experience in crucial areas. From scrumhalf through to outside centre the Aussies boasted no less than 326 international caps between four players. The South Africans had relative newcomers in Pierre Spies and Ruan Pienaar at No8 and scrumhalf, and it is not as though Butch James has played that much big rugby for the Springboks in recent seasons.

Australian teams may have struggled in the recent Super 14, but they had several top players out injured, and it is also true that Australia has suffered initially because of the dilution that has resulted from the extra team in the competition.

The Aussies though always manage to put a useful and clinically efficient national team together, and let’s not forget that the Brumbies, who provide the key decision makers, went through the second half of the Super 14 season unbeaten.

There is a lot of intelligence mixed with the experience in the Wallaby outfit, and it showed in the second half of the first half against the Boks, when they had the hosts battling when the ball was kicked back at them or behind them. George Gregan, as always, was pivotal to this.

The Springboks may have left it late, but there were not many areas of their game where you could fault them, particularly if you accept that the Australians always get away with a couple of tricks in the scrums to nullify the Bok strength there, depending on who is the referee.

If there is a problem, it might be the Bok inability to create tries, but then you need to remember that the Wallabies are probably the best defensive unit in the world. Before Newlands they had not conceded a try in three matches, and two of the tries scored by Wales in the opener were intercepts.

And let us not forget either that in none of their warm-up matches did the Wallabies field their strongest combination. The side that played in Cape Town was their strongest by far, and they played damn well for most of the way, delivering a defensive effort which Stirling Mortlock later admitted may have been the best he has been involved with.

The Wallabies were clearly shattered afterwards – they had given their best shot, they fell short. The Boks, if you look at all-round quality of performance, should have been hugely encouraged. They played most of the game without their skipper, they were forced to play catch-up against the best defensive team in world rugby – and they won.