South Africa’s Springboks will kick off their Rugby Championship defence with a clash against the somewhat resurgent Australia at Ellis Park in Johannesburg on Saturday.
Australian rugby has been in the doldrums for some years, but the Wallabies have made tentative steps forward under Joe Schmidt. Their 2-1 series defeat to the British & Irish Lions could easily have gone the other way, with Australia squandering a convincing lead in the second Test.
Up until recently, they were a bogey team for South Africa, but the Springboks utterly dominated both meetings in last year’s Rugby Championship – winning 33-7 and 30-12.
A tale of two trajectories
The Wallabies’ gradual decline has taken place since Australia hosted the 2003 World Cup. At the time, they were the most successful team in the history of the tournament.
It took a masterclass from Sir Clive Woodward’s England – sealed by an extra-time Jonny Wilkinson drop goal – to deny the Wallabies what would have been a third World Cup title and a second in a row before anybody else had won their second title.
Rugby Australia – previously named the Australian Rugby Union and the Australian Rugby Football Union – sought to use the cashflow from the World Cup to expand the elite level of the game.
The Western Force and Melbourne Rebels entered Super Rugby over the next eight years, but a Guardian article has detailed how there was insufficient investment in the foundations of a sport competing with many others for the attention of the Australian public.
The Wallabies still had maverick players such as Quade Cooper and Israel Folau over the ensuing years. However, after Folau’s 2019 sacking by Rugby Australia over a series of homophobic social media posts, the wheels began to come off.
The lowest ebb came during the 2023 return of Eddie Jones – their coach for the 2003 World Cup – as his ill-fated second stint became a symbol of a rugby nation that had not adapted to the times. Two decades of decline culminated in a first ever pool stage exit from the World Cup in France.
New Zealand-born Schmidt has been a breath of fresh air. While the jury may still be out on his legacy after eight wins and nine defeats from 17 Tests, he has certainly improved on Jones’ two wins and seven losses from nine matches.
When the 2003 World Cup took place in Australia, South African rugby was at its lowest ebb since the end of apartheid. The build-up to the tournament had been tainted by reports of racism within the camp after Geo Cronjé’s alleged refusal to share a room with Quinton Davids.
The public would soon learn of an ill-conceived “team building” exercise before the World Cup at Kamp Staaldraad. Reports emerged that players had been forced at gunpoint to remain in a freezing lake, where they pumped up rugby balls. More allegations were that they had to crawl naked across gravel, box each other, and kill chickens with their bare hands.
None of that appeared to help the Springboks at the 2003 World Cup, as they lost 25-6 to England and then suffered a 29-9 quarter-final defeat at the hands of New Zealand.
By the following World Cup in France, the Springboks were almost unrecognisable. Ironically, Eddie Jones was part of the technical team supporting then-head coach Jake White as the Springboks beat England 15-6 to clinch the World Cup.
However, a period of soul-searching followed. Peter de Villiers, Heyneke Meyer and Allister Coetzee all struggled to find the right balance between addressing the need for South Africa to bring talented players of colour through the ranks and the need to win rugby matches immediately. The Springboks were eliminated in the quarter-finals of the 2011 World Cup and the semi-finals in 2015.
Under Rassie Erasmus – who has been Director of Rugby since late 2017 and head coach in two separate stints, with Jacques Nienaber also enjoying a stint in the latter job – the Springboks have enjoyed unprecedented success. Crucially, transformation and winning have not been seen as mutually exclusive.
Erasmus has dealt with South African rugby’s core structural problems in a way that his Australian counterparts ought to take note of – although the challenges themselves are different.
Ironically, Erasmus reported to Schmidt when the former was Director of Rugby at Munster and the latter the head coach of Ireland. Indeed, it was Schmidt’s Ireland that inflicted the humiliating 38-3 defeat upon the Springboks in 2017 that left Erasmus pondering the need for South African rugby to completely re-think its philosophy a month before his return to home soil.
Last year, it was Erasmus’ Springboks who showed Schmidt’s Wallabies just how good they will have to be to return to the top. Now, Australia will attempt to rise to the challenge.
Key details:
Date: Saturday, August 16 at 5:10 PM CAT (3:10 PM GMT, 11:10 AM ET)
Venue: Ellis Park, Johannesburg
Referee: Ben O’Keeffe
How to watch: The match is available on SuperSport.
Team news:
The Springboks have built up major depth reserves. One surprise was the omission of prop Thomas du Toit from the squad, particularly given Steven Kitshoff’s recent injury-enforced retirement. However, there are few surprises in the starting XV. On the bench, Erasmus has opted for a 5-3 split.
The Wallabies have made only one change to the starting XV after their win over the British & Irish Lions in the third Test of their series, but it is certainly a change worth noting. Tom Lynagh – who suffered a concussion – is replaced by James O’Connor, who will play his first Test since 2022.
Springboks:
Starting backs: 15 Aphelele Fassi, 14 Edwill van der Merwe, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Andre Esterhuizen, 11 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Grant Williams
Starting forwards: 8 Siya Kolisi (captain), 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Marco van Staden, 5 Lood de Jager, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Wilco Louw, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Ox Nche
Replacements: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Jan-Hendrik Wessels, 18 Asenathi Ntlabakanye, 19 Franco Mostert, 20 Kwagga Smith, 21 Cobus Reinach, 22 Canan Moodie, 23 Damian Willemse
Wallabies:
Starting backs: 9 Nic White, 10 James O’Connor, 11 Dylan Pietsch, 12 Len Ikitau, 13 Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, 14 Max Jorgensen, 15 Tom Wright
Starting forwards: 1 James Slipper, 2 Billy Pollard, 3 Taniela Tupou, 4 Nick Frost, 5 Will Skelton, 6 Tom Hooper, 7 Fraser McReight, 8 Harry Wilson (captain)
Replacements: 16 Brandon Paenga-Amosa, 17. Angus Bell, 18 Zane Nonggorr, 19 Jeremy Williams, 20. Langi Gleeson, 21 Nick Champion de Crespigny, 22 Tate McDermott, 23 Andrew Kellaway
Stats:
The Springboks have beaten the Wallabies in each of their last four encounters, with Australia winning the three before that.
If the Springboks win on Saturday, it will be the first time they have won five successive Tests against Australia in the democratic era, having beaten the Wallabies seven times in a row from 1969-1971.