Springboks hammer Wallabies in Rugby Championship opener: Five talking points

The Springboks got their Rugby Championship campaign off to the perfect start as they powered to a thumping bonus point 33-7 win over the Wallabies at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on Saturday.

The visitors outscored the hosts five tries to one, and could have had a host more, while the Australians were lucky to even get over for their score after the Boks lost three players to yellow cards over the last 13 minutes, spending that time down to 13-men.

In the end it was an emphatic win for the Boks and they will hope to take this momentum into the rest of the tournament. Here are five talking points from the game:

Injuries don’t disrupt

The Springboks had a number of injury concerns before the start of the game, and made an early change in the first half, but that didn’t disrupt them from putting in a top performance. Earlier in the week Bok coach Rassie Erasmus admitted that lock RG Snyman, who was named to start, was carrying a knock and might not play.

That proved to be the case with him not proving his fitness, however his replacement Ruan Nortje, was injured during the captain’s run, which led to a shift in personnel as Pieter-Steph du Toit moved from flank to lock, Ben-Jason Dixon started at seven and Salmaan Moerat joined the bench.

The Boks also replaced hooker Bongi Mbonambi with Malcolm Marx in the 27^th minute.

Early tricks

The Springboks started the match with some early tricks that will have caught most people unaware, but were absolute Rassie Erasmus “box office”. The first scrum feed was done by Cheslin Kolbe as the Boks dominated the set-piece and looked to give themselves a different avenue to attack from.

A training ground move from a ninth minute lineout then led to the Boks’ opening try, as the ball was thrown to Dixon at the back, who relayed the ball back to Eben Etzebeth in the air at the front of the lineout, with them mauling over for captain Siya Kolisi to dot down from. They repeated the move later in the game.

Forward dominance

The Springboks were unrivalled at scrum time, absolutely dominating the Wallabies forwards while they also enjoyed good go-forward in the mauls as well. The Bok front row immediately set the tone for the match with a massive scrum penalty at the first scrum, and they never let go of that dominance.

The Boks’ third try, to Kurt-Lee Arendse, towards the end of the first half, was also down to the superb scrumming prowess of the visitors. After earning a number of penalties in the Wallabies 22m area, they chose to scrum each time, powering the Aussies backwards until Arendse slipped through to score.

Plenty of chances

The Boks had a host of chances throughout the match and they managed to take enough, but also left a number of tries out there during the game. They had a couple of early chances, but eventually converted through a maul as Kolisi went over. A brilliant break from Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu was then not converted after Willie le Roux cut inside instead of sending the ball wide.

Du Toit was soon put into a gap to score, and after some huge scrums, Arendse, surrounded by Wallabies defenders, somehow stepped his way through to score to make it 21-0 at halftime. A scoreless third quarter followed after the hosts played a lot better at the start of the second half, but the Boks soon hit them with a quick double score, as Kwagga Smith and Arendse went over as they pulled away.

Crucial bonus point

A big reason for the All Blacks’ dominance of the Rugby Championship over the years has largely been down to them picking up bonus points in games that they dominate, which helps when it comes down to a close finish to the competition.

In the 2022 competition it was a bonus point that separated the top placed All Blacks and second placed Springboks, after both finished the competition with four wins and two losses, which saw New Zealand triumph on 19 points ahead of the Boks 18.

The starting bonus point in this game for the Boks against the Wallabies could thus prove vital going forward.