Wallabies rise from the ashes to beat Boks at Ellis Park

Whatever was said by Australia coach Joe Schmidt during his half-time rollicking worked like a charm. 

Given how the Springboks have utterly dominated opponents over the few years, not many predicted the Wallabies would launch a comeback when both sets of players made their way to the dressing room for the break. 

When the half-time hooter sounded, the scoreboard was in overwhelming favour of the Springboks as they led 22-5 and the visitors looked to be down and out. 

South Africa led through early tries from Kurt-Lee Arendse, Andre Esterhuizen and captain Siya Kolisi during a 20-minute opening spell where they overpowered Australia. 

But as they say with these things, it is not over until the final whistle — and when the end was confirmed just before 6pm on a cold winter’s day in Johannesburg, the Boks were truly and utterly stunned, having lost 38-22. 

Australia arrived in South Africa with momentum after they beat the British and Irish Lions in the final match of their lost series at the beginning of the month and this proved they were battle-ready. 

Another talk among rugby pundits was on the evidence of their performances against the British and Irish Lions, the Wallabies are showing promising signs of rediscovering their mojo.

It is still early in the season for the Springboks to get the tournament on track but there are too many mistakes in their work, especially in the second half where they gave away easy tries and lacked cohesion. 

One of the major talking points is the fact that the Boks failed to score a single point in the second half. 

They will do it again in Cape Town on Saturday and the Springboks will have to produce a winning performance because another defeat will leave them on the back foot in the Rugby Championship. After Cape Town the Boks travel to New Zealand for back-to-back Tests and coach Rassie Erasmus will know it is not going to be easy away from home. 

Though they lost the Test match, there were some positive signs from the Boks, with players like Manie Libbok, Kolisi, Marco van Staden, Eben Etzebeth showing signs of good form. 

The Boks went into this match as favourites after recent good wins over the Barbarians, Italy and Georgia but this was their strongest test of the season and there is more to come. 

With this result Australia have clocked a significant milestone as they have finally defeated the Springboks at Ellis Park and they have made it two wins in as many Tests, which is a rarity for them. 

There was also a significant milestone for Etzebeth, who earned his 134th cap to join Gethin Jenkins of Wales in 10th spot on the all-time men’s list. The Boks also failed to register a fifth consecutive win over the Wallabies. 

Earlier on in the match, the Springboks did not waste time to get the scoreboard ticking when Arendse found himself with enough space on the left wing to touch inside two minutes after some good work by Kolisi in the build-up. 

A few minutes later, South Africa increased their lead with Libbok’s penalty and Andre Esterhuizen joined the try scoring party after 15 minutes but it was not converted. By this time the Boks were relentless by putting immense pressure on the Wallabies, whose defence was breached for the third time by Kolisi inside 20 minutes with Libbok doing the rest. 

The Wallabies got their first point of the match just before the half-hour mark, which was a try by Dylan Pietsch to make the scoreboard somewhat respectable. 

Australia got the second half off to a good start when Harry Wilson went over untouched to give them a glimmer of hope for a comeback and this was the start of the turnaround.  In Wilson’s try there was suspicion of a forward pass but officials were happy it came out of the hands backwards, much to the disapproval of South Africans supporters who whistled when James O’Connor took the successful conversion. 

Then momentum swung in Australia’s favour as there were more tries from Wilson, who registered a brace, Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii and Max Jorgensen, helping the Wallabies to take the lead. 

The Boks disintegrated in the closing stages and Tom Wright scored in the dying minutes as they began their campaign on a winning note — while at the same time leaving the Boks with more questions than answers.

South Africa (22) 22  Tries: Kurt-Lee Arendse, Andre Esterhuizen, Siya Kolisi Conversions: Manie Libbok (2), Penalties: Manie Libbok (1)

Australia (5) 38  Tries: Dylan Pietsch, Harry Wilson (2), Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, Max Jorgensen, Tom Wright Conversions: James O’Connor (4)