The headlines have focused on Bryan Habana’s 100th Test and a new Wallabies halfback partnership, but it is in the maelstrom of the forward battle that today’s clash between Australia and South Africa is likely to be decided.
The Springboks go into the match at Perth’s Subiaco Oval leading the Rugby Championship after two narrow victories over Argentina, while Australia remain winless after a draw and a 51-20 pummeling at the hands of the All Blacks.
McKenzie responded to the humiliation at Eden Park by reshuffling his backline, but the six-two split in favor of the forwards on his replacements bench is perhaps a better indication of the sort of match he is expecting.
Scrumhalf Nick Phipps and flyhalf Bernard Foley, the fulcrum of New South Wales Waratahs’ Super Rugby triumph, are to start a Test together for the first time after McKenzie abandoned his experiment with Kurtley Beale at No. 10.
However, it will be the performance up front that is likely to determine whether Australia can secure a first victory against one of the southern hemisphere powers since McKenzie took charge.
If McKenzie had any doubt about South Africa’s approach to the match, they were dispelled when Heyneke Meyer made six changes to the team that squeaked past Argentina 33-31 in Salta.
Adriaan Strauss came in at hooker alongside Tendai “The Beast” Mtawarira in the front row, Victor Matfield slotted back into the second row and Morne Steyn returned at flyhalf in place of the dropped Handre Pollard.
Strauss wins his place ahead of Bismarck du Plessis because of his discipline, strong scrummaging and accurate throwing-in, while Matfield remains an almost peerless ball winner at lineout time.
With Steyn’s booming boot ready to target the corners and punish any Australian indiscipline within 50m of their line, South Africa look set up to monster their opponents at the set-piece and maul them into submission or penalties.
Despite the hammering the Australia pack took in Auckland, McKenzie made only one enforced change to his forwards with James Hanson, his fourth choice at hooker, replacing the injured Nathan Charles.
Australia will be looking for one of the increasingly frequent “good days in the office” at set piece and hope to get the upper hand in the back row battle for breakdown supremacy against a less experienced Springbok loose trio.
Captain Michael Hooper can be expected to be as tireless as ever at openside, while the abrasive Scott Fardy at blindside and No. 8 Wycliff Palu need big games to be sure of retaining their starting spots.
The lively Phipps presents a greater threat than the demoted Nic White around the fringes and has shown great aptitude for getting his big ball carriers moving over the gainline.
Strauss’ selection means the fiery Du Plessis will be rested when the benches are cleared for the last 20 minutes, while loose forward Warren Whiteley will also be champing at the bit to get on the field and win his first cap.
McKenzie has offered former skipper James Horwill a chance to revive his career off the bench, but Australians hope he is not left regretting the absence of Will Skelton if a Springbok maul is rolling towards the try line with seconds to go.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier