South Africa completed a dominant 33 – 7 win over Australia in Brisbane to claim a second ever win at Suncorp Stadium.
Taking a 21 – 0 lead into the break, the World Champions were pretty much home and dry following tries from Siya Kolisi, Pieter-Steph Du Toit and Kurt-Lee Arendse.
In the second half, they would score two more tries through Arendse and Kwagga Smith to secure the bonus point win whilst the Wallabies would get one of their own through Hunter Paisami when the Boks had two players in the sin bin.
Here are three key takeaways from the opening round match.
Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu factor
Taking over the reigns as chief playmaker from Handre Pollard, the highly touted Stormers flyhalf was magnificent in his first start. Bringing a running threat on the level of Manie Libbok but with the control of Pollard when needed, Feinberg-Mngomezulu is the perfect conductor of Tony Brown’s attack. From the kicking tee he landed four from five whilst his kicking from hand was generally very good. Given his physical make up at 6’1″ and 95kg, his threat at the line both in attack and defence (11 tackles) had the Wallabies on the back foot.
Men against boys
As many feared coming into the contest, the Wallabies simply could not match the Springboks in the physical stakes. Starting with the attack, the Wallabies struggled to break the gainline with a total of 136 total post contact meters from 103 carries which was less than half of the meters gained by their visitors. Defensively, the Wallabies missed 29 tackles and conceded 14 penalties which will be the stuff of nightmares for a coach in Joe Schmidt who takes major pride in his teams being uber clinical. Away from the stats, the eye test did not lie and the Wallabies simply are not at a physical level where they can compete with the top sides in the world at the moment.
Predictable attack
Interestingly the Wallabies were looking to employ a narrow approach to their attacking game in an attempt to mitigate the rush defence of the Boks. This approach back fired on account of their inability to break tackles through the centre of the Bok defence which in turn meant they never managed to find a crease on the outside. Of course, South Africa deserve major credit for their clinical approach here with an 88% completion rate for first up tackles. When this first option was cut off, the Wallabies looked completely out of ideas in what will be a worrying sign for Schmidt and his coaching staff ahead of next weekend’s clash against the same opposition.
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