Rugby Championship LOG after Round 1

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The Wallabies produced arguably their finest comeback in the professional era to defeat the Springboks 38-22 in Johannesburg.

Down 22-0 after 18 minutes, the Australians were all at sea against a rampant Springboks side.

However, the Australians rallied and crossed for 38 unanswered points for their first win in South Africa in over a decade.

Turnovers

It was their first victory at Ellis Park in 62 years, with Harry Wilson crossing for a double.

Flanker Fraser McReight was immense with several turnovers as a deserving player of the match, typifying the Wallabies’ fight in defence.

The world champions were on their game early as they ran away with the win thanks to a powerful first quarter.

It started with Kurt-Lee Arendse diving over on the corner as the Springboks won several contestable kicks early. Manie Libbok’s boot added to the lead before the centre pairing of Jesse Kriel and Andre Esterhuizen set up their second try.

Number eight Siya Kolisi continued the onslaught as the captain dived over under the posts for the 22-0 lead.

Then the comeback began as the Wallabies delivered a world-class counter-attacking display to haul the hosts in.

It started through Dylan Pietsch, with the winger diving over untouched, set up by a loping play from Len Ikitau and an O’Connor offload.

The injection of Angus Bell at half-time delivered an instant impact when the prop showed off his hands to put Harry Wilson over untouched.

When Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii snatched an intercept and raced 60 metres, the Wallabies were down by just three and were growing in confidence by the minute.

Tried to fire shots

Stunned, the Springboks kept trying to fire shots and kept being repelled by Wallabies defenders.

It set the platform for Tom Wright to deliver, breaking the line and putting over Wilson for his second and the lead.

Max Jorgensen quickly followed him over, breaking Manie Libbok’s ankles with a sharp step off a beautiful James O’Connor long ball.

It was one of several classy moments from the veteran flyhalf on his return to the Test arena.

Wright then sealed the win with eight minutes to go as he capitalised on a Springboks error.

The win came at a cost, with captain Wilson limping off with injury, while Pietsch came off second best after a heavy collision with Kolisi.

But it’s a win that will go down in history for the Wallabies.

All Blacks finish strong in Cordoba

Meanwhile, New Zealand’s Samisoni Taukei’aho scored two late tries to seal a 41-24 Rugby Championship win over Argentina and return the All Blacks to the top of the world rankings on Saturday.

Dominant on the scoreboard but cluttered during the third quarter, the All Blacks opened their Rugby Championship campaign with a win in Cordoba.

Out by 31-10 at half-time, the All Blacks struggled as Argentina battled back to 24-31 as loose forwards Pablo Matera and Marcos Kremer, and hooker Julian Montoya, pushed the All Blacks hard while first five-eighths Tomas Albornoz controlled their performance and scored a superb try.

But, once they cleared their mistakes, the All Blacks looked the dominant side, especially in lineouts where loose forward Tupou Vaa’i, lock Fabian Holland and replacement Patrick Tuipulotu took charge.

In the loose, Ardie Savea was in his element, and Vaa’i continued his growth on the blindside flank.

After an exchange of penalty goals to All Blacks flyhalf Beauden Barrett and his opposite Albornoz, the All Blacks put their lineout maul to use for hooker Codie Taylor, Holland, and prop Fraser Newell to each charge at the line before the ball was released to the backs.

Fullback Will Jordan passed over the head of his marker for wing Sevu Reece to reel the ball in before it went over the sideline and scored in the eighth minute.

Argentina got their first chance in the All Blacks’ 22m area and made the most of it with several attempts to break through the middle of the rucks. But it wasn’t until they fed their backs that a pass from inside centre Santiago Chocobares was lobbed to wing Rodrigo Isgro, who scored out wide.

Yellow card

However, in play after the restart, a cynical foul by prop Mayco Vivas resulted in him receiving a yellow card. It took the All Blacks six minutes, but they finally took advantage after Savea, who was again in his burgling best in mauls, drove through tackles to get momentum.

The ball was moved wide through the backs, where Jordan side-stepped inside a defender to run into space and feed the supporting scrumhalf Cortez Ratima, who scored in the 23rd minute.

Argentina’s desperation resulted in them conceding penalties that allowed the All Blacks to kick deep to the corners for lineouts, twice in the last five minutes.

First, at their second attempt, it was Savea on the back of a lineout maul who scored in the 37th minute, and then after inside centre Jordie Barrett was used to gain extra distance from inside the All Blacks’ half.

Another lineout drive allowed Ratima to probe deep into the red-zone, and after centre Billy Proctor and flanker Du’Plessis Kirifi carried on, it was moved wide for Reece to score his second try, two minutes into extra time.

Scored under the crossbar

The first 10 minutes of the second half were untidy from both sides before the All Blacks made their first substitutions before a scrum 15m from their line. But Argentina struck when replacement scrumhalf Finlay Christie and Jordie Barrett were unable to contain Albornoz, who took advantage, running against the grain, to score under the crossbar.

As Argentina lifted the tempo of their game, and utilised more possession, the All Blacks started to concede penalties in their 22m, and the home benefited, with centre Billy Proctor infringed as Matera ran hard to the line, and was sin-binned. Argentina’s confidence lifted as it opted to take a scrum from a penalty, and then next used a tap penalty.

From that play, it was No 8 Joaquin Alviedo who put the ball down beside a goalpost to get Argentina to 24-31 down.

That proved the spark to ignite the All Blacks’ response, and it was the choice to kick to the corners from penalties that, at the second attempt, saw replacement hooker Samison Taukei’aho use his strength off the maul to score and put more distance between the sides.

A carbon copy in the 73rd minute saw Taukei’aho over again to frustrate the home’s ambitions.

There was still time for the All Blacks to concede another yellow card when replacement centre Anton Lienert-Brown was involved in a head-on-head clash with Chocobares three minutes from the end.

Consistency and fluidity across the game were still elusive for the All Blacks, but they showed that when they were able to gain control, they had too much skill for the Argentinians to contain.