South Africa 32
Australia 25
There, that didn't hurt, did it Peter? ...
At last, we saw something resembling a true World Champion performance from the World Champion South Africans, a proper exhibition of all the game's skills.
Gone was the safety-first, timid, kicking-obsessed game that had dominated the Springboks' three home games in this
year's Tri-Nations. True, it brought them victories and a stack of points in the table, but it also attracted a storm of criticism from around the world for its negativity and lack of adventure.
You knew within the opening 10 minutes in Perth that the criticism had stung the Boks.
Wherever possible, they moved the ball and the success of the tactic was shown inside 10 minutes. By then, Fourie du Preez and Jaque Fourie had scored stunning tries, another by Bryan Habana was to follow soon after, and at 22-3 after just 32 minutes, the South Africans had taken a stranglehold on the match. Not by the use of Morne Steyn's boot (actually, he missed a conversion from in front of the posts and later a penalty goal), but by adopting an attacking creed.
How heartwarming that was to see, albeit not for New Zealand eyes, with the Hamilton test in a fortnight.
The Australians made far too many mistakes to have a serious chance of hauling themselves back from that deficit. They closed to 22-13 early in the second half with Matt Giteau's try following a spell of sustained attack but handling errors (they made 13 in total) and a plethora of turnovers cost the Wallabies.
De Villiers' team proved us critics correct in the faith we had expressed in the South African threequarters. They have the ability, the power and pace to score tries against any defence, anywhere in the world. All they have lacked was the coach's courage to allow more movement, a willingness to take their game wide and look for space and attacking opportunities.
One thing is for sure, the Springbok backs will always get plenty of opportunities to run and score tries because the forward platform off which they can play is the stuff of dreams. Heinrich Brussow had another superb game, helping to snaffle the ball time and again. Others, too, played their part and the lineout was again powerful and commanding.
The Australians were outplayed and overwhelmed in all but one phase, the set scrums, where they exposed John Smit's credentials as a tight-head prop.
But at the breakdown, the Springboks were again hugely powerful, clearing out ruthlessly and occasionally smashing straight through the middle to overrun the Australians' position, despite often committing only a few players. Australia didn't help themselves with some woeful technical errors.
Yet de Villiers' men also proved their critics right in another way, too. My belief that backs, no matter how proven their quality, need to feel the ball in their hands on a regular basis to be completely effective, was born out by the number of dropped passes behind the scrum. Jean de Villiers, Ruan Pienaar, Jaque Fourie and Bryan Habana all made such mistakes, underlining the point that no team can just turn on attacking rugby like a light switch and expect it all to go without a hitch.
Victory in Brisbane will give the Springboks the Tri-Nations title. For the sake of the game, it is to be hoped they will attempt to complete their task continuing this attacking philosophy, rather than just kicking.
