It was not pretty, but it was pretty effective.
A spirited second-half fight-back by the Springboks turned a close-run match into a thrilling 23-19 victory over Australia and with it Tri-Nations triumph at a packed King’s Park on Saturday afternoon.
It was a hard-fought, nail-biting and at times ugly game, but the last 10 minutes seemed a million times as intense and thrilling as any moments before it.
Two sin-binnings — of Percy Montgomery and Breyton Paulse — in the dying minutes meant the Boks had to dig very deep for the win.
And a massive effort saw them withstand a concerted Wallaby comeback (the Boks led 23-7 with just nine minutes left on the clock) to be crowned champions again.
There were many heroes for the home team, but again Schalk Burger, Joe van Niekerk and line-out king Victor Matfield were outstanding throughout the 80 minutes.
The Wallabies led 7-3 at the interval.
The atmosphere at the kick-off was electric and the teams added to the occasion with a pulsating opening five minutes.
The Boks were mostly on the front foot and despite taking the ball though seven phases at one stage they could not find a way past the well-marshalled Wallaby defence. Jaco van der Westhuyzen’s kick behind them (probably in frustration) was badly executed and Lote Tuqiri was able to tidy up.
They stayed in the visitors’ territory but could not capitalise — even when Clyde Rathbone gifted the Boks a scrum 5m out after eight minutes.
Australian flyhalf Stephen Larkham was creating plenty of panic with his high up-and-unders.
Matfield was showing his worth at the line-outs and kick-offs, but neither team had really taken the game by the scruff of the neck.
South Africa were mauling impressively but, as in Perth, tighthead prop Eddie Andrews was taking a beating in the scrums.
It was a tale of too many handling errors by South Africa and as the first quarter elapsed the teams were still amazingly locked at 0-all.
Most of the focus during this surreal period of play was on Rathbone, and each time the former Bok under-21 captain touched the ball, it was greeted by loud boos in the crowd. He did not help himself by making a few unforced errors — much to the glee of the crowd.
However, he silenced them when he put through a pin-point grubber kick just after the half-hour mark for fellow wing Tuqiri to gather and score near the poles. Centre Matt Giteau kicked the conversion to put his team 7-0 up after 32 minutes.
Earlier, both he and Montgomery had missed relatively easy attempts at goal as the atmosphere switched dramatically from absolute fervour to absolute disbelief.
For the Boks, Burger and Van Niekerk tried, only in bursts admittedly, to lift their teammates who had gone terribly flat as the half wore on.
The crowd did have something to shout about when on the stroke of half-time, the Boks were awarded a penalty just inside the Wallaby half. Montgomery stroked it through the uprights to register his team’s first points.
At 7-3 down, it was the first time since Jake White took over as coach that the Boks were behind at the break. And it was completely understandable as the Australians had displayed far more composure — an indication of their far superior experience at this level.
Ultimately it was an utterly forgettable first half for both teams, but the home team made the second a half to remember.
They came out firing and lock Matfield sold George Gregan an outrageous dummy three minutes after the restart to send the packed stadium into raptures. And Montgomery’s conversion sent the Boks into the lead.
Eight minutes later they were at it again as the mounting pressure saw the Wallabies line buckle and Van Niekerk crashed over to extend the lead.
Those tries seemed to help inspire Montgomery and, after a poor first-half kicking performance, he slotted two penalties in quick succession to push the Boks out to a 16-point lead.
The World Cup runners-up came back strongly and with Larkham, Giteau and Latham running fiercely at the Bok midfield it took a Herculean effort from the home side to keep that lead intact.
They managed to hold them at bay until a foolish challenge by Montgomery earned him a yellow card with a little more than 10 minutes remaining.
And on their very next attack the Wallabies created a two-man overlap and centre Stirling Mortlock scored to put the champagne on ice for a short while longer.
The stadium went silent when George Smith was awarded a try two minutes from the end, but erupted at the final whistle that signalled the return of the Boks to the top of the world rugby tree. — Sapa