Review: South Africa v Australia I

South Africa 22 Australia 19

With a collective age of 3714 the Wallaby backline was never going to be beaten on experience. The only real question was whether Larkham would be able to last the game without snapping in half or exploding in some way. And does Gregan even need to shave his head anymore? Or can we expect to see him in an Advanced Hair (yeah yeah) ad soon?

The surprising thing to my hairy eyes was the way that the Australians managed to negate the much-vaunted physicality of the 'boks. South Africa lack the flair and attacking prowess in their backline to really threaten teams with good defensive patterns, so it's usually through the forwards that they make their gains. Like a league team in many ways, they build a platform on one-man plays via their big men, before hoping the gaps open up.

But Australia were equal to the task on Saturday, defensively at least. One wonders though whether they'll be mentally a bit whacked after pouring their souls into defending for 80m, only to fall short.

The South Africans also didn't look as strong as I'd expected. They had a few injuries to be sure, but still looked a little....robotic. They demonstrated an inability to change their gameplan when it became obvious it wasn't giving them the opportunities they needed.

The game also illustrated once again the need to lower the number of points given for a drop-goal. I'd love to see it drop to a single point. Do you agree or not?

Either way, it will be a huge game this Sunday morning (NZT) against the 'boks.