London – Four weeks ago the Springboks were in serious danger of not making the World Cup quarter-finals but on Wednesday night they secured their play-off spot.
But who would South Africa prefer to play in their October 17 quarter-final at Twickenham? It will be the loser of the Australia versus Wales game tomorrow and the intimation from the Bok camp is that they agree with Sir Graham Henry, the coach of the All Black team that won the title in 2011, that the Wallabies are “the most dangerous side at the World Cup and the team to beat”.
Only those living in the principality to the west of England would disagree that Wales are the underdogs tomorrow at Twickenham and would be a team more beatable for the Boks in the quarters.
“They are both strong sides that have beaten England at Twickenham in this World Cup, but you would have to say Australia have shown the most growth this season,” Bok assistant coach John McFarland said from the Boks’ base in the Teddington suburb of west London.
It is mostly at forward that the Wallabies have shown dramatic improvement and they have made a traditional weak point, the set scrum, a powerful weapon and the biggest revelation to come out of their victory over England last week was the ease with which they dominated the scrum, a traditional strength for England.
“We have played both Wales and Australia quite frequently in recent years,” said McFarland. “We played Wales three times during the course of 2014, so I think the two sides pretty much know what each other are about.
“And of course we play Australia regularly in the Rugby Championship and before that in the Tri-Nations. Of the two teams though, it is the Wallabies who have undergone the more significant improvement.
“While Wales have stayed pretty much the same, Australia have really stepped up in areas where they were previously weak, and that has made them even more formidable opponents than they were before,” McFarland said. “You just need to look at the improvement in their scrumming to see that they are a team on an upward trajectory.
“I think that has been plain to see in this World Cup. They are now a team that can lay down a good platform in all areas of forward play, and that makes them very dangerous,” McFarland added.
“They are clearly a team full of confidence at the moment.”
They have also beaten the All Blacks this year, 27-29 in Sydney in the Rugby Championship, and that gave Michael Cheika’s team a major boost in morale that they have carried into the World Cup.
This weekend, while the top nations are fighting it out, the Boks will have their feet up watching the action, the pressure of the last month having disappeared. For a while anyway, but the chief objective had been to avoid the disgrace of not making it out of the Pool stage. But while the players have been given time off McFarland and the rest of the coaching staff will be analysing the World Cup winning streaks of Wales and Australia.
“Obviously we will be scrutinising that game at Twickenham and when we see who wins (and loses), we can sharpen our focus and have the plan laid out for the players when we resume training on Monday,” McFarland said. “They are both good teams, but they bring different challenges.
“What is really great for us now is that we have been through three very challenging weeks, where there has been a lot of pressure to perform, and we now have three or four days to refresh and get ourselves ready for the play-offs.
“It effectively becomes a one game tournament from now on, with each challenge being dealt with separately and as it presents itself.” - The Star