Australia punished by men in yellow

Australia were their own worst enemies on Saturday when they lost 29-17 to the powerful game play of the Springbok's.

The indiscipline that saw three Wallaby players yellow carded in the game against the Springboks at Newlands on Saturday can be compared to a 3 punch knockout combo in boxing.

Although the Springboks deserved the win, their performance was far from polished. The winning margin could and should have been far bigger. Handling errors and a messy scrum saw useful field position and try-scoring opportunities go a begging. I have already written about the Springbok scrummaging woes in a previous posting so I won't go into that now.

I do feel that John Smit needs special mention for his superhuman rugby skills. Everyone that watched the game on Saturday will admit that the moment of the match was when John Smit (who, remember, now plays tighthead prop) was about to pass the ball when he looked up to see no-one in behind the Australian defence - as they had all rushed up. His pass turned into a dummy pass and in one motion he proceeded to drop the ball onto his left boot for a perfectly weighted grubber. To everyone's amazement the grubber was executed as if he did it week-in-week-out. It was perfectly weighted and resulted in a try for Springbok lock Victor Matfield - who together with Bakkies Botha were celebrating their 50th appearance as a lock combination for South Africa.

If not for the way that the Springboks dominated every facet of forward play, on another day the school boy handling errors may have cost the them the game. For a team with the experience and class of the Boks, they have a lot of work to do. The trip to Australasia won't be easy and making basic errors will only compound the massive task ahead.

The Springboks definitely showed that they are worthy of the World Champion tag and the no.1 ranking, but they should be very wary of complacency.