Handré Pollard doesn’t simply point to the poles. The South African metronome, his face stuck in a perpetual scowl, thrusts a meaty finger towards the uprights as if he owns them. “You’re mine,” he growls, with the promise that in just a few short seconds an oval ball will be spiralling through them courtesy of his swinging right boot.
If there’s such a thing as a Test match animal then it is Pollard, the only fly-half present at the final whistle of two victorious World Cup campaigns. And Test match animals win Test matches. Whatever transpires across 80 minutes is almost immaterial. All that matters is the result.
It would be simplistic to say that South Africa claimed a 30-22 arm-wrestle solely because of Pollard’s right boot. The Springboks rectified last week’s sloppiness at the breakdown and were able to keep hold of the ball for extended periods. They won the battle for the skies and limited the impact of Australia’s roving loose forwards by keeping things tight, making sure that ball carriers were never isolated for too long beyond the breach.
Then again, Pollard did kick all six of his shots at goal, adding 15 points to the score. By contrast James O’Connor missed three kicks. He failed to convert Brandon Paenga-Amosa’s rolling maul try on 68 minutes before shanking two penalties late in the piece. That’s eight points shelled in a game lost by as many.
Is O’Connor to blame? Of course not, though there is a sense that for all the improvements under Joe Schmidt the one missing ingredient is found not on the training pitch but between the ears of some senior players.
Australian rugby could do with some Test match animals in their ranks. Even a smattering would do. They claimed famous victories over the Lions last month and the Springboks last week but still don’t have a trophy to show for their efforts. And until something changes, nothing really will.
Which would be a shame because on a soggy pitch in Cape Town, where handling the ball and moving it at speed required incredible skill and accuracy, the Wallabies were brilliant in patches. As they were in Johannesburg ,they were blistering from broken play. It was the quick thinking of Nic White who kicked in behind for the flying Corey Toole to score on debut and even after Tom Wright left the field with a serious knee injury, the men in gold posed a threat from deep.
Not that it was that sort of the game. Rassie Erasmus was never going to let things fracture like they did at Ellis Park so Pollard kicked his points and the Boks pack powered around the fringe with short carries and busting clear-outs. A chalked-off try for Fraser McReight would have been reward for the Wallabies’ toil, but the 20-10 deficit at half-time was a fair reflection of the contest.
Australia then matched their hosts at their own game. The returning Rob Valetini wasn’t at his best but was more than good enough, steamrolling over tacklers, carrying men in green on his shoulders. Tate McDermott, on for White who failed his head injury assessment after being rag-dolled by Kwagga Smith, kept it simple. Short passes found willing runners who charged into the guts of the South African defence. Even Len Ikitau was running into the maw. If the Boks wanted to go to the gutter, as their hooker Bongi Mbonambi once called the close quarters, the Wallabies would gladly follow.
Wallabies rugby used to mean razzle-dazzle and show stopping highlights. It still does, but now it means something else as well. Max Jorgensen scored from a cross-field kick after solid work at the scrum. But with Pollard keeping the scoreboard ticking off the tee, the Wallabies were held at arm’s length.
They had a chance to take the lead with just over 10 minutes to play to confirm their status as comeback kings. But O’Connor missed the gettable conversion after Paenga-Amosa’s rumbling score and soon after Eben Etzebeth reached out to dot down. Pollard’s boot stretched the lead to eight, forcing Australia to score twice if they wanted to claim back-to-back wins over the Springboks for the first time since 2015.
It wasn’t to be. Not because Australia can’t front up. Not because they don’t have a midfield or half-back pair who can unlock doors. Not because they don’t have flyers out wide. Not even because they don’t have a bench capable of upping the ante. Those concerns have been dispelled. Australian rugby is back. That much is clear.
No, Australia lost this slugfest because South Africa possess a Test match animal who bends games to his will with the simple act of kicking a ball between two poles. The sooner the Wallabies unearth one of their own, the sooner the trophies will follow.
