The Tri Nations is poised delicately after three games, with each team boasting a win apiece now that Australia have entered the fray and overturned the world champions. The hype-mongers will tell you that it is spellbinding stuff and a vindication for the Experimental Law Variations. A soberer analysis, though, is that this was another scrappy game that ended on a minor high simply by virtue of being close.
The whole tournament is shaping up to be close, which undeniably makes it interesting, but there was so much ping-pong kicking here and only sporadic flashes of coherence. And the cheer-leaders will not be telling you about the dreaded Mexican wave that broke out in Perth well into the second half. The crowd are meant to be on the edge of their seats by that stage, but this was not quite what they had in mind.
Australia deserved the win for clinically finishing off two of their sporadic flashes. But in the first half it was the sporadic flashes of the Springboks that caught the eye. At that stage, they looked noticeably the more physical and likelier to score. The closest they came was from a Jean de Villiers break, well worked off a scrum and developed on by Francois Steyn and Pierre Spies. But then they were sloppy when it mattered - a theme throughout - and it was over to Australia to wake up and show them how, just before the break.
George Smith was into the heart of South Africa from a long line-out throw, and slick hands worked Lote Tuqiri over in the corner. Suddenly South Africa were looking bewildered, the hangover from last weekend in Dunedin, not to mention the subsequent long journey to this remote city, perhaps catching up with them.
It did not get much better for them after the break. Australia had an attacking scrum, a weapon of rare threat these days under the ELVs, with defenders required to stand five metres further back than normal. But that did not excuse the soft pat De Villiers offered up as an excuse for a tackle to Stirling Mortlock as he charged through. The Australia captain continued on his way, gathering a further three Springbok tacklers on his back by the time he had made it to the line.
That opened up a 13-3 lead to the hosts in the 45th minute and, despite a couple of penalties chipping the lead down to four by the 70th, South Africa's endeavours never quite convinced enough for the crowd to forgo their Mexican wave. Berrick Barnes's late drop goal put the matter beyond too much doubt.
So for all the hype emerging from the administrators Down Under that the game under these new laws is so much better than before, the truth is less clear-cut. The first halves of all three games so far have been unbelievably tedious, featuring boot tennis more than anything else, and if the second halves have been better it is mainly because of the tension that develops when neither side can build up a lead.
South Africa now step out of the action, with Australia taking on New Zealand next week, which should at least reduce the emphasis on kicking and muscularity. The ambition of the two teams on the pitch will always have more influence on a match than the laws they play under.
Subiaco Oval 41,838
Australia Ashley-Cooper; Hynes, Mortlock (capt; Cross 49), Barnes, Tuqiri; Giteau, Burgess (Cordingley 72); Robinson, Moore (Polota-Nau 72), Baxter (Dunning 70), Horwill, Sharpe (McMeniman 73), Elsom (Waugh 78), Smith, Palu (Mitchell 80)
Tries Tuqiri, Mortlock Pen Giteau Drop goal Barnes
South Africa Jantjes; Pietersen, Steyn, De Villiers, Habana (Pienaar 66); James (Grant 66), Januarie; Steenkamp (Mtawarira 51), Brits (Strauss 51), Van der Linde (Mujati 78), Botha (Bekker 66), Matfield (capt), Burger (Kankowski 49), Smith, Spies
Pens Steyn 2, James
Ref B Lawrence (New Zealand)
