There is every chance the Tri-Nations will be decided in the final match of the series to be played between the All Blacks and the Wallabies in Brisbane on September 13.
In the meantime, the Wallabies play the Springboks twice in South Africa, with the first game on Saturday August 23 in Durban and the second the following week in Johannesburg. The Australians need to win only one game to ensure that they will be vying with the All Blacks for the title in Brisbane.
Johannesburg
Statistics suggest the Wallabies should win the second game in Johannesburg – it will be the third Tri-Nations match in a row for the Springboks and no team has won three games in a row in the history of the Tri-Nations. However, the Wallabies will be without their new halfback Luke Burgess, who is injured.
The Springboks go into Saturday’s match in Durban smarting from their 19–0 loss to the All Blacks last Saturday (August 16), only the fourth time they have been kept scoreless by the All Blacks in 75 years – and the first-ever zero score at home. The match was particularly disappointing for the Springboks fullback, Percy Montgomery, who celebrated his 100th Test match.
The All Blacks and their coaching staff have been under tremendous pressure after losing to the Springboks for the first time in Dunedin earlier in the competition. Many people in New Zealand wanted coach Henry replaced with the former coach of the New Zealand Super 14 side, the Crusaders’ Robbie Deans. When Deans failed to get the All Blacks job earlier this year, he took the position as Wallaby coach. He has won five matches from six.
The game plan
The All Blacks changed their game plan from their kick-to-the-corners approach of their last match, the 39–10 thrashing of the Wallabies in Auckland at the beginning of August. In this game, they chose to confront the Springboks in hand-to-hand combat – they chose to meet the ’Boks where they are strongest.
The foundation of all Springboks sides is their size and aggression, particularly in the forwards. However, any team that tries to avoid that contest will be chewed up and spat out by the ’Boks. Knowing that, Henry met “biff” with “bash” – and he came out a winner. The brilliance of the plan lay in the detail – that being that the All Blacks could make it work.
Even Henry, the taciturn former school master, broke into a smile after the game. And well he might. His last two matches have been coaching master-strokes – the expansive game against the Wallabies and the battle of attrition against the Springboks.
A fascinating aspect of the Wallaby–Springboks clash on Saturday (August 23) will be how the Wallabies approach the game. How will the tactics of Deans compare with those of Henry – or, in other words, who is the better coach?
