What is traditionally a one-horse race when the Wallabies play the Springboks up north is apparently still a one-horse race. Many Australians, including former World Cup-winning hooker Jeremy Paul, are favouring the Wallabies to win at Ellis Park.
I had to check the date and make sure the insert of Paul waxing lyrical about his Wallabies was not AI generated and a spoof.
Nope, the charismatic Paul, who is part of one of my favourite rugby podcasts from Down Under, was insistent that the Wallabies arrive in South Africa ‘battle-hardened’ and will be better prepared than the Springboks.
Paul’s theory is that the Wallabies have just come off a three-Test series against the British & Irish Lions and, despite losing the series before kickoff for the third and final Test, the Wallabies got stronger with each half of rugby played besides the dismal opening 30 minutes of the first Test in Brisbane.
Australian confidence in any sport is a given, but what I do enjoy about those who have played for the Wallabies, play for the Wallabies, aspire to play for the Wallabies, support the Wallabies and professionally tell the story of the Wallabies, is this super power to forget any form of disaster and focus on any hint of glory, however momentary.
The British & Irish Lions tourists to Australia in the past two months were OK, at best, and ordinary when compared to the Lions that won in New Zealand in 1971 and in South Africa in 1974. They were not in the class of the Lions who toured South Africa in 1997 and 2009, Australia in 2013, New Zealand in 2017 and South Africa in 2021.
The Wallabies just don’t scare the South African rugby public, not in South Africa and not when playing up north.
It is in Australia where the Lions tend to win the most and, in the latest instalment, they were playing a Wallabies team that started the series ranked 8th in the world and had taken 79 minutes to score the winning try against Fiji a fortnight before the start of the series.
But it only took one win, a week after the series had been decided, to reaffirm to those Australians that the ‘Wallabies were back, baby’ and ready to put the Springboks to the sword.
I love the confidence, and it adds spice and juice to the build-up next week. In this country, the rah rah in Test week is usually the exclusivity of the All Blacks being in South Africa. The Wallabies don’t evoke the same kind of reactionary passion (read vitriol) from the South African rugby public. They are the antitheses of the Australian national cricket team, who on arrival are already living in the minds of South African cricket supporters.
The Wallabies just don’t scare the South African rugby public, not in South Africa and not when playing up north.
History is quoted for a reason, because the only thing that people seem to learn from history is that they don’t learn from history.
History says only one team wins when the Boks play the Wallabies at Ellis Park, and that team is South Africa.
The Wallabies won their only Test at the famous gladiatorial arena in 1963, and since the sport turned professional in 1996, they have never won.
They came close when Rudolf Straeuli was the coach in 2002. The Boks, who had not won a match in the Tri-Nations, led 26-9 before falling behind 31-26 with less than a minute to play.
It was a limited Springboks match 23, with limitations in the coaching department. The Wallabies were a very good squad, but still, they could not get it over the line.
Boks fullback Werner Greeff scored with the last move of the game and then kicked the conversion for a 33-31 win.
If not on that day, then when Australia?
Australia has a 21 percent win record in South Africa. No visiting team that has played more than 20 Tests in South Africa has a worse record. The Wallabies record in South Africa is their worst when touring any other country.
But it took just one win against a Lions team still in party mode to convince some bright minds, who have been there and done it, that they will win in Johannesburg.
I love it.
Finally, some sizzle to a home Test build-up against the Wallabies, if not necessarily substance.
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