Key events
6 min: Grant Williams has the ball on a string. From the line-out he boxes and finds Etzebeth who was always going to win the ball in the air. The Williams dinks a kick to the corner and finds Arendse who runs straight and hard at Jorgensen. The Aussie makes the tackle and also forces the knock on. Wallabies scrum in their own 22 all the way on their right.
5 min: Australia secure the line-out. They go right then back down the blind on the left. Ikitau dinks a kick that finds ground inside the Boks 22. Van der Merwe mops up and dopes well to wriggle under the tackle of Pietsch and is tackled high. So it’ll be a relieving penalty for South Africa inside their own patch.
4 min: A similar kick-off for the Wallabies is fielded by de Jager. The Boks keep the ball until Fassi overcooks a kick. The Wallabies get the line-out inside SA territory.
TRY! South Africa 7-0 Australia (Arendse, 2)
What a start for the Springboks! It started with Wright fumbling a Williams box kick and then it was all momentum. Just about every player was involved. Du Toit, Kolisi and more had strong carries until the cracks opened. Fassie joined from fullback to play the final pass to his left where Arendse had a simple run in. That move went several phases and 70 metres.
Libbok nails the conversion from the left.
1 min: De Jager takes the kick-off. Wright spills a box kick so the Boks attack with Libbok to Kriel down the right. Van der Merwe makes room off the right wing and the Boks are upfield. Kolisi has a stroing carry. They’re up to the Wallabies 22 with du Toiut charging…
The anthems are done. The team talks are over. The referee Ben O’Keefe has the whistle in his mouth.
Let’s play!
The Impis are making their appearance.
Want to learn more about the Zulu warriors?
The live coverage has started on Sky, picking up the South African broadcast from SuperSport.
Matt Pearce has highlighted the bench splits with the Wallabies going 6-2 and the Boks going 5-3. What is this, Freaky Friday?
Australia are looking for their first win in Johannesburg since 1963.
They have an aggregate score of 201-107 against in the City of Gold from their six games there in the professional era. Their most recent visit ended with a 35-17 defeat in the first round of the 2019 Championship.
Incidentally, the Boks had the same midfield combo that game, had the same second row combo , played an attacking fly-half (Elton Jantjies) and had Cobus Reinach coming off the bench alongside two other backs.
Hey, if it ain’t broke.
It’s easy to forget that the Wallabies were in the doldrums back in September 2023.
The pasting they received at the hands of Fiji at the World Cup meant they failed to get out of their group. Eddie Jones inevitably got the sack and there were questions over whether the code had a future at all.
This redemption narrative isn’t complete, but it’s on track.
The team is on the up. Fans are returning. Interesting is rising. The Rugby Championship is another opportunity to keep the fire burning.
Wallabies team
The 35-year-old James O’Connor has been picked at at fly-half, playing his first game for Australia in three years.
If the veteran can get the ball out wide the Aussies will be in business with the combative Dylan Pietsch and the slippery Max Jorgensen waiting in the trams.
First, O’Connor will need front foot ball and here is where the game will be won and lost. The back row of skipper Harry Wilso, Tom Hooper and Fraser McReight will need to boss their sphere of influence. Keep an eye out for the cameo of Langi Gleeson off the bench.
Wallabies: 1 – Slipper, 2 – Pollard, 3 – Tupou, 4 – Frost, 5 – Skelton, 6 – Hooper, 7 – McReight, 8 – Wilson (c); 9 – White, 10 – O’Connor; 11 – Pietsch, 12 – Ikitau, 13 – Suaalii, 14 – Jorgensen; 15 – Wright.
Replacements: 16 – Paenga-Amosa, 17 – Bell, 18 – Nonggorr, 19 – Williams, 20 – Gleeson, 21 – Champion de Crespigny, 22 – McDermott, 23 – Kellaway.
Springboks team
Rassie Erasmus named his team on Monday and it’s one that promises loads of running.
Manie Libbok at fly-half will be keen to let the ball sing and has a freewheeling scrum-half inside him in Grant Williams, arguably the fastest man among the 46 involved today.
Siya Kolisi plays at No. 8 and there are five forwards and three backs on the bench, a departure from the Bomb Squad tactic that has brought so much success over the past six years.
Eben Etzebeth’s battle with Will Skelton in the tight exchanges could swing the contest.
Springboks: 1 – Nche, 2 – Marx, 3 – Louw, 4 – Etzebeth, 5 – de Jager, 6 – van Staden, 7 – du Toit, 8 – Kolisi (c); 9 – Williams, 10 – Libbok; 11 – Arendse, 12 – Esterhuizen, 13 – Kriel, 14 – van der Merwe; 15 Fassi.
Replacements: 16 – Mbonambi, 17 – Wessels, 18 – Ntlabakanye, 19 – Mostert, 20 – Smith, 21 – Reinach, 22 – Moodie, 23 – Willemse.
Preamble
Daniel Gallan
There’s a saying in cricket that you can’t judge a pitch until both sides have had a bat.
Here’s my equivalent for rugby: You can’t judge the power of a pack until it’s gone toe to toe with the Springboks.
The Wallabies might have lost the series against the British & Irish Lions, but some of their big boys left with reputations enhanced. Will Skelton, Rob Valetini, Taniela Tupou, Nick Frost, Tom Hooper, Langi Gleeson; where there were concerns about the Aussies ability to mix it with big boys there’s now confidence in the tall timber.
Well, let’s see how hard they really are. Because bullying the Lions is one thing. Standing firm against the double world champions on their own patch is something else entirely.
They’ll have to do it without Valetini, for my money the most destructive loose forward in the world (Pieter-Steph du Toit fans, I said ‘destructive’, not ‘best’). But, with six forwards on the bench compared to the Boks’ five in reserve, Joe Schmidt still has enough to cause a seismic upset. Or does he?
We’ll find out in a bit when the old frenemies lock horns at the Home of Rugby that is Ellis Park in Johannesburg.
Get in touch if you want to share something with the group. Reckon the Wallabies have the requisite meat? Will the Boks razzle-dazzle with a zippy backline? Want to pull me up on anything I’ve said already? My door is open.
Kick-off at 4:10 pm local time, 0:10 am AEST.
Teams and other bits to come.
