It was scrappy and messy, but the Springboks got the job done in atrocious conditions in Perth when they beat the Wallabies 30-12 on Saturday to go back-to-back in Australia for the first time since 1971 – while also banking a precious bonus.
The Boks have a full house of 10 points at the top of the Rugby Championship after a profitable fortnight in Brisbane and Perth.
But it was a wretched opening 15 minutes from the Boks at Optus Stadium on Saturday as they made error after error, although many of them were due to the ball made slippery by the incessant rain that fell all day in Perth.
Powerful No 8 Elrigh Louw went offside at a ruck and Noah Lolesio banged over the three points just two minutes into the game.
Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu levelled the scores in the 15th minute, but it was a sobering game for the youngster in that he made some basic errors, the worst of which was dropping a pass with the tryline beckoning.
Shortly after, Makazole Mapimpi had the ball dislodged as he dived for the line after a very good cover tackle by fullback Tom Wright.
It got immeasurably better for the Boks when fullback Aphelele Fassi scored a wonderful try.
Australia had been on the attack in the Boks 22 when the ball was turned over. Lukhanyo Am launched a counter-attack that had Mapimpi making the early running before delivering the perfect kick ahead for Fassi to outpace the cover defence and score in the corner.
The weekend special 🎶
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Aphelele Fassi runs on to Mapimpi's perfect grubber to score for the Boks 🤩
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The first quarter closed on an unfortunate note when captain Salmaan Moerat went off injured and was replaced by Eben Etzebeth.
The Wallabies fought back with penalties by Lolesio to narrow the score to 11-9, and there was a let-off for the Boks at the end of the half when the No 10, who had been kicking beautifully, missed a sitter in front of the posts.
It was a first half in which the only way the Wallabies could get into the South African half was via penalties conceded by the Boks.
They also managed the kick-offs poorly amongst a litany of mistakes. The positive is that the world champions created a host of opportunities, which doesn’t often happen in wet conditions.
The Boks started the second half emphatically. They won a ruck penalty in the Aussie half, and when Nic White was marched back ten metres by referee Paul Williams for holding on to the ball, the grateful visitors kicked to the corner, and a perfect maul try was finished off by Marco van Staden.
They gave three points back to the Wallabies when they conceded yet another penalty.
At this point, in the 55th minute, the Wallabies lost prop Angus Bell to a head impact assessment, and that meant uncontested scrums for the rest of the match because there were no fit props on the bench.
The steady rain worsened into a heavy downpour, rendering the conditions atrocious.
So close to a 50-22 😲
What can't Cheslin Kolbe do? 👏👏
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With 15 minutes to go, the Boks made the game safe when Malcolm Marx scored his 18th Test try, a regulation score off the back of an advancing maul after a penalty kicked to the corner.
A few minutes later, he did exactly the same thing, making the score convincing while banking an invaluable bonus point for the fourth try.
Now it’s onto the All Blacks for two Tests, in Johannesburg on August 31 and Cape Town on September 7.
Points-Scorers
Wallabies 12 – Penalties: Noah Lolesio (4).
Springboks 30 – Tries: Aphelele Fassi, Marco van Staden, Malcolm Marx (2). Conversions: Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu (1), Handré Pollard (1). Penalties: Feinberg-Mngomezulu (2).