The Springboks have work to do on their scrum as they close in on this year’s Tri-Nations against the Wallabies next weekend, coach Peter de Villiers says.
The world champions paved the way for their first southern hemisphere championship in five seasons with a 32-25 victory that flattered the Australians at Subiaco Oval on Saturday.
It was the first four-try bonus point of this year’s Tri-Nations series and stretched South Africa’s tournament lead over the All Blacks to nine points with two games to play.
South Africa can all but wrap up the series in Brisbane next Saturday with one more point, leaving New Zealand, with home games against the Springboks and Wallabies next month, with just a mathematical chance of catching them
The Springboks dominated all facets of a one-sided contest with the exception of the scrum, where the improving Wallaby front row forced them into conceding 15 penalties, many of them emanating from the set piece.
”We never had the platform to play off, but we still managed to play with the kind of ball we had,” De Villiers said after the match.
”Our defence was good, our kicking was outstanding, as it always is, and we passed the ball and scored four tries.”
The Springbok coach admitted there would be an investigation into his team’s scrum problems ahead of next weekend’s encounter with the Wallabies.
”We will definitely look [on video] at our scrums and see if we were hard done by or if we did anything bad, and then we try to improve on that one and set the platform there,” he said. ”I think
we will be back [next week].”
The Wallabies again proved they had the scrummaging edge following on from their second-half scrum display in the 29-17 loss to the Springboks in Cape Town earlier this month.
But the scrum was the only area the Wallabies could accentuate as a positive as the ruthless Springboks surged to a 32-13 lead with 12 minutes left, only for the home side to score two
consolation tries in the final minutes to close the final margin to seven points.
”I said we could play total rugby and we did as the guys made brilliant decisions. When the space was there to run it we did,” De Villiers said.
”I was happy with the character they showed. There were a few calls that went against us, we were at sixes and sevens in the scrums and we didn’t know what would come next.
”But we bounced above the situation and showed character to stand up as a team and to play with the scraps that we got.”
Former world player of the year Bryan Habana enjoyed his team’s expansive mood, dotting down for two tries to take him to 37 tries — one behind the South African record holder Joost van der
Westhuizen.
”You work a little bit more against the Aussies up against Matt Giteau and they have a few good kickers, so it’s good to get your hands on the ball and get involved,” Habana said.
Scrumhalf Fourie du Preez celebrated his 50th Test appearance by making fools of the Wallaby defence with a quick-thinking try in the opening minutes.
Du Preez caught out several unsuspecting Wallabies with their backs turned to take a quick tap penalty and score, while it was his high kick that Wallaby winger Lachie Turner fumbled for
Habana’s first try. – AFP
