Australia 11 South Africa 9:NEW ZEALAND'S worst nightmare is less than a week away. Australia are coached by the man who was overlooked for the job as All Blacks coach in 2007, Robbie Deans, who will take his team to the semi-final at Eden Park on Sunday after the Wallabies somehow survived a battering from the holders South Africa to reach the last four for the fifth time.
Many here expected Deans, an assistant coach for New Zealand in the 2003 World Cup and a former All Black, to take over from Graham Henry after the 2007 tournament when New Zealand fell at the quarter-final stage for the first time. But Henry successfully reapplied for his job and Deans left to take charge of Australia.
Australia spent most of the quarter-final against South Africa in their own half, defending with a mixture of zeal and desperation. The Springboks played with ambition but lacked the skills to match.
They conceded a soft try when Schalk Burger ran from a lineout near his own line, lost the ball after the prop Ben Alexander’s inadvertent steal, and the Wallaby captain, James Horwill, shrugged off Morne Steyn’s challenge to score after 11 minutes.
It was the only try of the match and came against the run of play. Burger atoned two minutes later with a try-saving tackle on Stephen Moore after Kurtley Beale broke from his own half, but when Heinrich Brussow was penalised at a ruck James O’Connor made it 8-0 after 15 minutes.
Then Australia’s possession dried up. Victor Matfield started stealing lineouts and the Springboks kept the ball in hand. Their problem was that, once Brussow went off at the end of the first quarter with a rib injury, David Pocock took control of the breakdown. South Africa complained that Australia were slowing down their ball but the referee Bryce Lawrence took the view that, unless he saw a blatant offence, he would give the attacking and defending sides latitude. The Wallabies did take advantage but the Springboks were not averse to entering a breakdown from the side and off their feet.
South Africa were fortunate in the second half when Steyn body checked Digby Ioane as the wing chased his own chip into the Springboks’ 22 but was not even penalised for a cynical offence that merited a yellow card. For all their complaints about the anarchy at the breakdown South Africa should have won comfortably.
All they had to show for playing 84 per cent of the first half in Australia’s half was a late penalty by Steyn. The outhalf kicked South Africa into the lead after 59 minutes with a penalty and a drop goal after Matfield snaffled another Australia lineout.
But Fourie du Preez twice lost control of the ball with the line beckoning, three promising moves ended after forward passes were thrown and the Springboks lacked composure. The more they moved the ball the less likely they looked to score. It was a triumph for Australia’s defence in what was a stereotype reversal with South Africa doing all the running.
When Danie Rossouw tipped Radike Samo to the ground at a lineout, O’Connor kicked the winning goal with nine minutes to go.
After the match South Africa coach Peter de Villiers stepped down from his post. “It was a brilliant journey,” De Villiers said at a news conference in Wellington.
De Villiers (54) was appointed as the first black coach of the Springboks in January 2008, replacing Jake White, who steered the national team to its second World Cup title in 2007.
AUSTRALIA: Beale (A Faingaa, 74); O'Connor, Ashley-Cooper, McCabe (Barnes, 52), Ioane; Cooper, Genia; Kepu (Slipper, 68), Moore (Polota-Nau, 64), Alexander, Vickerman (Sharpe, 53), Horwill (capt), Elsom, Pocock, Samo (McCalman, 72).
SOUTH AFRICA: Lambie; Pietersen, Fourie, De Villiers, Habana (Hougaard, 49); M Steyn, Du Preez; Steenkamp, Smit (capt; B du Plessis, 49), J du Plessis, Rossouw, Matfield, Burger, Brussow (Louw, 19), Spies (Alberts, 63).
Referee: B Lawrence (New Zealand).
Guardian Service
