Following a 23-12 victory for South Africa over Australia in their Rugby Championship game, here’s our five takeaways from Port Elizabeth.
The Kurtley Beale experiment isn’t working: Beale is a quality player but it just isn’t happening for the Waratahs man in the fly-half position. He always shows some excellent touches but the 29-year-old does not provide the control they need in that position. His errant pass for the first try rather typified that and, while Bernard Foley has his detractors, Foley is quite simply a better pivot. Michael Cheika evidently wants to get Beale and Matt Toomua in the same team so why not put the former at full-back with Israel Folau already out on the wing?
Boks show promise but need to find the right balance: South African supporters have yearned for a more expansive game, which was something they attempted during the Allister Coetzee era, but they went wide without doing the hard work up front. Rassie Erasmus has helped correct that somewhat but they are still overplaying at times and need to adjust. Handre Pollard has huge potential but he is making too many mistakes at fly-half and is allowing the opposition back into the game. It is a positive that the Springboks are creating chances but they just need to tighten up elements of their game to challenge the All Blacks consistently.
Double delight out wide for Boks: Not the biggest in terms of size but both Aphiwe Dyantyi and Cheslin Kolbe are deadly if given a sniff. Dyantyi enjoyed the perfect start to the game thanks to that gift from Beale on 30 seconds and was a threat throughout, with only some poor basic skills and option taking costing him another crossing. Kolbe meanwhile was somewhat a leftfield call-up in South Africa’s team earlier in the Rugby Championship but on Saturday showed he belongs at this level. A brave and dangerous wing who was faultless in PE.
Wallabies lacking physicality: This was a glaring weakness in Australia’s game at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium as they could not bust down a formidable Springbok defence. Not for a lack of trying, the visitors simply did not have the bulk to make inroads in close quarters and that was a huge psychological fillip for the Boks, who are improving game by game. Australia had 60% possession and 64% territory while the Boks made over twice as many tackles as their visitors but the scores just wouldn’t come for Cheika’s side, who need more grunt up front.
Quiet day for Taniela Tupou: He’s been a real handful when coming off the bench this Rugby Championship but as a starter on Saturday Tupou was not his usual bustling self. South Africa contained the powerful tighthead – and the whole pack as mentioned above – with only two carries for zero metres his offering with ball in hand. Maybe Cheika will go back to Allan Alaalatoa starting and Tupou off the bench?