One team boasts some of the most menacing forwards found anywhere in the world. The other is developing a backline capable of tearing apart any defence. Business as usual, then, for a Wallabies versus Springboks clash. Except this time, like the characters of Freaky Friday, the two sides have switched identities ahead of the first round of the Rugby Championship.
Australia might have lost the British & Irish Lions series but they were one referee’s decision at the breakdown away from causing a seismic upset. That the margin was so small was thanks largely to the thundering cameos of Will Skelton, Rob Valetini, Taniela Tupou and a handful of other meaty men who provided the front-foot grunt that was absent in the first Test in Brisbane.
As for the Boks, under attack coach Tony Brown – the former All Black fly-half – the back-to-back world champions have shed their stereotype. These are no longer the burly brutes of old but sprinters and schemers, running from deep, off-loading in the tackle, unleashing a conveyor belt of diminutive scrum-cap-wearing wingers with nitroglycerin in their boots.
Adding this sense of altered egos is the makeup of the two benches. Rassie Erasmus named his Boks team early on Monday and picked three backs among the replacements, a departure from his usual reliance on the infamous “Bomb Squad”, the moniker given to six or seven forwards who enter the scene like a herd of rampaging buffalo. Joe Schmidt waited until Thursday to announce his 23 which includes six forwards and just two backs in reserve. How often, if ever, has a Wallabies bench weighed more than their Boks counterparts?
Does this mean that we’ll see a total inverse from what has come before? Not quite. The Springboks will still look to front up physically and Erasmus’s decision to start Malcolm Marx at hooker, rather than bring him on around the hour mark as he usually does, is a sign that he intends to land a few early blows.
This could be in response to the threat posed by Will Skelton, one of the most unique forwards in the game given his 2.03m 135kg frame that falls like a felled redwood over the gainline. When he carries he requires the attention of at least two tacklers, thinning the line elsewhere. There’s every chance Erasmus has multiple code-named moves that directly address the conundrum that is Skelton.
But that imposing body doesn’t have an engine that can last 80 minutes. Against the Lions, after missing the first Test, he was subbed early in the second half in both the second and third rubbers. If the Wallabies have any hope of pulling off an upset they’ll need a lead by the time the big unit is hooked on Saturday.
Compounding matters for the tourists is the absence of Valetini, who has been unable to shake a calf injury. His abrasive presence will be missed around the fringe especially as Erasmus has picked a trio of rangy loose forwards.
There are two open-sides on either flank – the jackaling Marco van Staden and the two-time World Rugby player of the year, Pieter-Steph du Toit – with captain Siya Kolisi given licence to play towards the ball from No 8. All three of them will target the fly-half channel and look to leave a mark on the 35-year-old James O’Connor, playing his first game in gold for three years.
Even without Valetini the Wallabies will fancy their chances at the breakdown. This has been an area of concern for the Springboks as they’ve sacrificed support over the ball for extra bodies in the attack line. Recently, both Italy and Georgia more than held their own at the ruck against South Africa. Harry Wilson, Fraser McReight, Tom Hooper and the two loose forwards on the bench will know that ascendancy in their sphere of influence could prove decisive.
Should they fail the Boks will run rampant. The freewheeling Manie Libbok has won the three-way battle for the No 10 jersey, edging out the more reliable Handre Pollard and the all-rounder Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu. On his inside he’ll have Grant Williams, a zippy scrum-half who prefers sniping through gaps to setting up metronomic phases or box-kicking behind a wall. With altitude being a factor at Ellis Park – the stadium in Johannesburg sits 1,800 metres above sea-level, resulting in visiting teams fatiguing late in the piece – the Boks’ half-backs will want to stretch the game as much as possible.
This has all the ingredients to be the strangest Wallabies v Springboks clash since the two teams first squared up 92 years ago. Roles reversed, styles swapped, history tilted. Green and gold, gold and green. Victory for either side could see them embark on a wholly new trajectory.
