For 18 minutes, everything was going according to script. The double world champions were running riot at Ellis Park, stomping over the gain line with every carry, shrugging off tacklers and hammering anyone unlucky enough to be wearing a gold jersey.<\/p>\n
Australia had touched the ball twice before Kurt-Lee Arendse scored the opening try; once when James O\u2019Connor kicked off, then again when Tom Wright spilled a contestable kick. Twelve minutes later Andr\u00e9 Esterhuizen sliced through the right before Siya Kolisi bulldozed over under the posts. Manie Libbok kicked seven extra points to nudge the score to 22-0 in South Africa\u2019s favour. We\u2019d not yet reached the quarter mark of this one-sided contest.<\/p>\n
Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii had his nose bloodied by Eben Etzebeth. Will Skelton was being bullied. O\u2019Connor, parachuted in at fly-half, had been steamrolled on three occasions. The Wallabies had arrived in Johannesburg with reputations enhanced<\/a> after their Lions series defeat. This felt like a reality check.<\/p>\n And then Fraser McReight won a penalty on the ground in his own 22. \u201cMomentum\u201d is an overused word in rugby, usually cited only in hindsight. Yet this was the spark. It was here that Australia turned around, dug their heels in and fired shots of their own. It was here that Australian rugby under Joe Schmidt ascended another level. Four consecutive penalties later and Dylan Pietsch was sliding over in the corner.<\/p>\n South Africa\u2019s failings compounded matters. \u201cWe were really dogshit on the day,\u201d their coach Rassie Erasmus said. Too often they overplayed and were inaccurate in the red zone. Their inability to secure the ball was a concern against Italy and Georgia during the July internationals. Now it is a glaring weakness. Any team with a back row as dynamic as the one under Schmidt\u2019s watch will cause the Boks a world of trouble.<\/p>\n Two minutes after the restart Nick Frost nicked a lineout. Then Angus Bell thumped Malcolm Marx before finding Harry Wilson on a superb line. Ellis Park was hushed, as if 60,000 people realised at once that the Springboks\u2019 aura of invincibility was just a story they\u2019d been told.<\/p>\n Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii flies high for the ball at Ellis Park. Photograph: BackpagePix\/EPA<\/p>\n The players seemed to sense it too. Most of them lifted the Webb Ellis Cup two years ago after a hat-trick of one-point victories. They\u2019ve made a habit of snatching triumphs from hopeless causes but momentum was fully against them. Perhaps this is why Libbok forced the issue from inside his own half with an ambitious floating pass only to see Suaalii pluck it from the thin Highveld air and dot it down for a try on the hour.<\/p>\n Wilson had his second, sparked by the magnificent Wright who didn\u2019t put a foot wrong after that opening knock-on, to give Australia the lead. Mere seconds after the restart Max Jorgensen was flying down the right tramline to open up the advantage. And when McReight stooped low with just seven minutes left, getting his meaty frame over the ball with the Boks swarming inside Australia\u2019s 22, the game was won. Wright\u2019s cherry-on-the-top, counterattacking, zigzagging try turned the result from a nail-biting upset to a bona fide shellacking. Make no mistake, this is the biggest hiding the world champions have copped since their fairytale run began in 2019.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think it was about one moment,\u201d Schmidt said when asked how his team pulled this off. \u201cIt was about sticking to what we\u2019d talked about all week. The boys showed a lot of courage, and when we got a foothold, we kept building.\u201d That is the emerging story of Schmidt\u2019s Wallabies: a side that doesn\u2019t collapse but grows when written off. They stole a late win at Twickenham last year, rallied against the Lions after a poor first Test, and now turned a 22-point deficit into a first win in Johannesburg since 1963.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n The latest rugby union news and analysis, plus all the week’s action reviewed<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Does all this put the Lions series result in context? Are South Africa\u2019s veterans now a step behind? Are they caught between two philosophies, one that trusts in traditional might while the other compels them to run it from deep? Can we declare that Aussie rugby is officially back?<\/p>\n