Wallabies vs Springboks Combined XV: The Best of a Perth Nail-Biter

Fluorescent Cards, Frayed Nerves and a Frantic Finish

Optus Stadium delivered a Test that went from procession to pandemonium. The Wallabies beat the Springboks 42-38 to claim the Mandela Challenge Plate and stretch Les Kiss’s unbeaten run to five Tests (four wins and a draw against Los Pumas). For an hour it was ruthless. They led 42-17 with under 20 minutes to play. Then Harry Wilson, Ryan Lonergan, Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii and Hunter Paisami were all shown yellow cards inside eight minutes, and a side that had been cruising was suddenly defending on 11 players. Meanwhile, TMO calls made by phone stretched the final ten minutes towards half an hour of real time. Paisami’s card has since earned him a citation from SANZAAR, with an update due Wednesday.

The Springboks rang 13 changes from the side that played the All Blacks in Baltimore, then emptied the Bomb Squad at 47 minutes, a bench boasting ten Rugby World Cup winners and over 340 Tests. It took a man advantage, or four, for it to bite, with a penalty try, a Morne van den Berg try and a last-minute Ox Nche dive all coming late. Elrigh Louw led the match with 15 tackles, which tells you where the Boks spent the night.

The Forwards

• 1. Loosehead Prop: Angus Bell (Wallabies)

Bell was the cornerstone of a scrum that won every one of its seven feeds. The 25-year-old also chewed through the second-most carries in the Wallabies pack by half-time, and he did his lifting before the Boks unloaded their reserve front row, so the late scrum wobbles aren’t on his account.

• 2. Hooker: Johan Grobbelaar (Springboks)

Grobbelaar scored the opening try when the Boks kicked to the corner and the maul shunted him over on the second push. He also made 12 tackles, third-most on the park. He was steady at the set piece on a night when the Springbok lineout was otherwise leaking, then made way early in the second half.

• 3. Tighthead Prop: Wilco Louw (Springboks)

Louw spent barely half a game on the pitch and still rearranged a Test. He and Ox Nche tore into a Wallabies scrum that had been rock solid, forcing the penalty try and setting up Van den Berg’s close-range effort off a powerful shove.

• 4. Lock: Jeremy Williams (Wallabies)

Williams inherited the lineout calling when Josh Canham pulled out with a hamstring, and the Force skipper made it look easy. He pinched Bok throws throughout the night, including a second-half steal where he swam through a maul to snaffle the ball. That helped the Wallabies to 11 from 12 on their own throw, and it was a big reason the visitors were rattled.

• 5. Lock: Lukhan Salakaia-Loto (Wallabies)

Handed a late start after Canham’s withdrawal, Salakaia-Loto repaid the selectors in the first quarter. He dragged in defenders with a run of hard carries near the line, then produced a deft offload for Len Ikitau to score the opening try. It was tidy, punishing lock play.

• 6. Blindside Flanker: Paul de Villiers (Springboks)

In a Bok pack that spent the night being dragged through the middle, De Villiers was the exception. He stole the ball off Max Jorgensen inside three minutes to earn Pollard’s opening penalty, finished with three turnovers won (equal second in the match) and was busy around the breakdown all first half.

• 7. Openside Flanker: Fraser McReight (Wallabies)

McReight led the match with three turnovers won, including one just after the break that put the Wallabies on the front foot. He also made an early line break linking with Wilson as is their wont. His pilfering set the tone for a Wallaby back row that hit hard before the substitutes arrived.

• 8. Number Eight: Harry Wilson (Wallabies)

The skipper topped the dominant tackle count with three, added 13 tackles overall and was the primary lineout target once Canham dropped out. He also spotted a gap beside the ruck for a try, 30 seconds after one was scrubbed out. Wilson said afterwards that the squad had spoken about the second-half fades against Ireland and France earlier this year, and the response was there for 68 minutes. Then he was sent to the bin for the first of four Wallaby cards.

The Backs

• 9. Scrum-Half: Ryan Lonergan (Wallabies)

Lonergan finished with 17 points, going seven from eight off the tee, the only miss a wide conversion late on. His high box kicks gave Suaalii and Jorgensen the perfect platform to dominate the skies, and one of them set up Ikitau’s second try. He also read a Springbok scrum move to pressure Pollard into a rushed pass. His late yellow for illegally stopping a shove was the only blemish.

• 10. Fly-Half: Handre Pollard (Springboks)

It wasn’t a vintage Pollard, and he was gone shortly after the break, but he still made his mark in 47 minutes. He landed the opening penalty, added two conversions for seven points, and his fizzed pass to Canan Moodie started the chain that ended in Edwill van der Merwe’s try. With Ben Donaldson’s three turnovers lost the worst in the match, this is the pick of a shaky pair of playmakers.

• 11. Left Wing: Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii (Wallabies)

Suaalii won the opening kick-off, won the aerial duel that led to Ikitau’s second try, and slipped a no-look pass to put Donaldson over before half-time. He lacks top-end wing pace defensively, which the Boks exploited once for Van der Merwe, and he was harshly yellow-carded for offside when replays suggested he was onside. Overall the wing experiment worked, and Kiss made a point of praising the whole back three.

• 12. Inside Centre: Andre Esterhuizen (c) (Springboks)

The Bok skipper carried 12 times, second only to Jorgensen, and did it in a side that was otherwise leggy and error-prone. He also threw the pass that Tom Wright intercepted for a try, only for the TMO to hand him a reprieve. It was a noisy 80 minutes from a man who never stopped running at people.

• 13. Outside Centre: Len Ikitau (Wallabies)

Ikitau scored two tries in three minutes, one off Salakaia-Loto’s offload and one after an untouched 20-metre run that started with Suaalii winning a high ball. Two line breaks put him second in the match and he was second overall in running metres. He missed a tackle in the lead-up to Van der Merwe’s try, then limped off at 53 minutes with an ankle problem that Kiss is treating as precautionary ahead of the Bledisloe Tests. Wallabies fans are holding their breath regarding his fitness for the upcoming Bledisloe games.

• 14. Right Wing: Max Jorgensen (Wallabies)

Jorgensen led the game in carries (13) and line breaks (four), and pounced on a Moodie dropped pass to run the length of the field in the 64th minute for the try that made it 42-17. Kiss summed him up by saying Jorgo is Jorgo, that nothing fazes him, and that finishing like that was special. Hard to argue.

• 15. Fullback: Tom Wright (Wallabies)

Kiss called it Wright’s best game in four or five Tests and said he was imperious at times. His kicking game was accurate, including a first-quarter grubber to Jorgensen that set up the Wallabies’ second try, and he linked well in the back three with Suaalii and Jorgensen. His intercept try with under four minutes left was chalked off by the TMO, which shouldn’t take the gloss off a top night’s work.