South Africa vs. Australia Preview
The South African Springboks will take on the Australian Wallabies at home in Pretoria this weekend in the seventh match of the 2010 Tri Nations tournament. Both the Boks and Wallabies are coming off of losses at the hands of the New Zealand All Blacks.
Standings
The New Zealand All Blacks currently sit in first and have clinched the Tri Nations cup with 23 points and a point-differential of plus-72. Australia remain in second place with four points and a differential of minus-14, while South Africa still find themselves in last place with one point and a differential of minus-58.
Preview
The two sides cannot win the Tri Nations Cup as New Zealand locked up the trophy with last week’s victory over the Springboks. Nevertheless, the Mandela Challenge Plate, awarded to the winner of the series between Australia and South Africa is still up for grabs.
The Wallabies have not played for three weeks and are certainly the most rusty of the two teams. However, the Aussies were able to defeat the Boks in the two side’s only meeting of tournament thus far in Brisbane. At that point in the tournament the Boks were still thought to be the better team, however their record in Queensland was atrocious and therefore the Aussies were favoured to win.
Nevertheless, circumstances in this week’s game are much different than at the beginning of the month. The Wallabies will have to deal with the issue of elevation as Pretoria sits well above sea level. In addition, the support of the home town fans will certainly help to spur the Boks on to more aggressive and meaningful play.
In Brisbane the Wallabies were able to use their speedy backs as well as the imagination of star Quade Cooper to thwart the much larger and more experienced Boks side. In Pretoria however the pitch will not be nearly as fast and thus more geared towards the big bodies of South Africa.
South Africa’s success meanwhile is still contingent on their ability to perform. They entered the tournament as the number two ranked Rugby Union in the world and were thought to have a chance to push their way past New Zealand on route to claiming the number one spot, as well as a Tri Nations victory. Unfortunately for the Boks none of that transpired, in fact the exact opposite has played out over the past month and a half. They are instead at risk of relinquishing second spot to the Aussies.
Australia are still the tournament underdogs and therefore have much less pressure than the hulking South Africans. If the Aussies are able to take both the Mandela Plate and the second overall spot in the rankings it will have been a successful tournament, from a team who was predicted to not win more than a game.
Line-up changes
The Springboks will welcome back both Jaque Fourie and Jean De Villiers who had been serving separate bans for lifting tackles. In addition, South Africa has also named Frans Steyn as the club’s full back for the match. However, Steyn’s club Metro Racing says that he is still not ready for test play, having suffered an injury a couple weeks earlier.
Australia meanwhile will welcome Cooper back into the fold as the young star is set to return from a two-week ban, which saw him miss the two games against New Zealand. Cooper is an integral part of the Australian offence and at fly-half helps to set the pace of the game. With Cooper back in the line-up the Boks can expect a fast and more invigorated side when compared to the one that played against New Zealand three weeks ago.
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