The Springboks take on the Wallabies

Friday, 6 September 2013 03:32 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Rugby Championship resumes after a week’s break. The Wallabies are still smarting after two successive defeats at the hands of the All Blacks who continue to keep the Bledisloe cup with them for yet another year. In fact the Wallabies have forgotten what the cup looks like given that they have not laid their hands on it in a while. New Wallabies coach McKenzie effectively started with a baptism of fire, and obviously felt the heat of coaching a national side and its fallout as opposed to a Super Rugby side. During the Lions tour, Will Genia was quite open and candid in his remarks that he would rather have Quade Cooper as his preferred choice of # 10, which was not granted during the Lions tour and even against the All Blacks. They now stand reunited for the game against the Boks this weekend. Genia will have the additional responsibility of leading the side once again in the absence of the regular skipper. Quade Cooper knows what is required to beat the Springboks, as he has been involved in seven victories in his nine Test matches against the

Springboks. In the last two games he has come off the bench in the last quarter where the game had been effectively sealed by the All Blacks and hence his flair was not on display, not aided by the constant booing of the NZ crowds where Rugby is a religion and Skipper McCaw is God. Jesse Mogg will start the game from the bench whilst the dynamic Israel Folau moves to the fullback role where he will see more of the ball and have a greater impact. This will in all probability give the Genia the space to play upfront, with the likes of Cooper, Leali’ifano and James O’Connor to field the high ball in addition to Folau. The Wallabies have struggled in the scrums, despite initial euphoria that the new scrummaging laws will be beneficial to them. New tight-head prop, Sekope Kepu, has been preferred and given the physicality of the Boks, this will come in useful. South Africa coach Heyneke Meyer has recalled Bismarck du Plessis as one of five changes to the Springboks’ starting side. Du Plessis has been declared fit after sustaining a knee injury against Argentina last year, and he will start alongside his brother Jannie in a front-row. Many believe that this is designed to have a go at the Wallabies scrum which has wobbled on many occasions. Zane Kirchner will play at fullback after recovering from a hand injury. Meyerhas apparently made two positional changes to accommodate Kirchner’s inclusion. Willie le Roux moves from fullback to right wing and the dashing try machine Bryan Habana, shifts to the left wing. The other changes are indicated as rotational. I am not sure that the rotational policy is healthy in the long run; bit will support a ‘horses for courses’ approach. As a player if you are to be rotated when in peak form, the chances are that you have to make a ‘come back’ when reintroduced into the team. In terms of trivia, the Boks have never won in seven Tests at Suncorp Stadium, including six since the inception of the Tri-Nations/Rugby Championship in 1996. The Boks will dismiss this as merely a statistic whilst the Wallabies will attempt to feed on this fact. In the other game the seemingly impregnable All Blacks take on the Pumas. Such is the bench strength of the All Blacks that Francis Saili will become the 17th new All Blacks player under Steve Hansen’s tenure. Despite the changes, the All Blacks have delivered the goods especially in the second half of the game indicating that they are great finishers and believe in their ability to turn a game on its head even at the last moment. (The writer can be reached via [email protected].)

The Springboks take on the Wallabies

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