Springboks edge Wales, Wallabies show class
(REUTERS)-(Champions South Africa were the latest of rugby’s heavyweights forced to scrap for an opening win at the World Cup when they escaped with a 17-16 victory over Wales to open their title defence yesterday. In the first match on day three of tournament, Australia, for one half at least, gave notice that their young team will be strong contenders to take away the Springboks’ crown with a James O’Connor-inspired 32-6 victory over Italy.
Ireland, however, failed to dispel the dark clouds that gathered over their camp in the run-up to the tournament with a scrappy 22-10 victory over a United States team fired by the marking of the 10th anniversary of the 2001 terror attacks on their country.
England and France both laboured to opening wins on Saturday but neither came as close to losing as the Springboks, who had a late try from Francois Hougaard and a misdirected drop goal attempt from Welshman Rhys Priestland to thank for their victory.
“We did everything but win the game,” said Wales coach Warren Gatland. “Our players will be devastated but that’s sport, that’s the drama of it. We just have to take it on the chin and move forward.”
South Africa made the best possible start to the Pool D match in Wellington, playing expansive rugby and getting their reward when fullback Frans Steyn burst through two tackles to score the opening try after four minutes.
Wales regathered, however, and dominated territorially for much of the rest of the match, taking a 16-10 lead when number eight Toby Faletau slid over the line for a try and James Hook converted 14 minutes into the second half.
The Springboks proved with their 2007 triumph that they are nothing if they are not battlers and when their chance came, they took it.
On a rare incursion into the Wales 22, they battered away at the red ranks before replacement winger Hougaard sprang through a huge hole in the defensive line and touched down under the posts.
Morne Steyn converted but Wales had their chances to retake the lead in a dramatic remaining quarter of an hour, Hook missing a difficult penalty and flyhalf Priestland miscuing a simple drop goal attempt from 30 metres.
“Wales, to us, are always a great challenge,” said South Africa coach Peter de Villiers.
“This is what World Cup rugby is about. The first game is very important and now we’ve got that out of the way with a win we can look forward to our next match.”
Twice champions Australia also looked like they might be in for a scare when they went in at halftime tied up at 6-6 with an experienced and physical Italian team in Albany.
O’Connor, dropped after sleeping through the World Cup squad announcement, came off the bench seven minutes into the second half and little more than 10 minutes later, the Wallabies had scored three tries.
Prop Ben Alexander, centre Adam Ashley-Cooper and livewire winger O’Connor himself crossed as flyhalf Quade Cooper finally got his backline moving, with Digby Ioane adding a fourth try after 67 minutes to effectively kill the game as a contest.
“We didn’t help ourselves in the first half, we were a little bit impatient,” said Robbie Deans. “We overplayed our hand in the way that we attacked, I think we got the balance of our attack right in the second half.
“But you’ve got to give the Italians credit. We have a lot of respect for the way they defend and they take time to break down.”
Australia’s next opponents in Pool C are Ireland, who should have felt at home in the wet and windy conditions in New Plymouth but put in an error-strewn performance against a willing but limited U.S. side.
Winger Tommy Bowe scored two tries with hooker Rory Best adding another but Irish flyhalf Jonathan Sexton managed just two from six kicks at goal.
“Sure there is definitely disappointment but it is not the end of the world,” said Irish skipper Brian O’Driscoll.
“There are plenty of things to work on that we can fix, and when you look at individual errors, if everyone can tighten that up we are straight away on a better footing.”
While O’Driscoll was trying to keep his team’s troubles in perspective, his American counterpart Todd Clever had no difficulty in putting his team’s performance into context after attending a memorial service yesterday morning for the victims of the attacks on New York and Washington.
“In the grand scheme of things this is just a game and we’re talking about thousands of lives,” he said. “We were glad to have our chance to pay our respects.”
The tournament now takes a two-day break before resuming on Wednesday when Samoa, Canada and Georgia, the three teams yet to get a taste of the action, get their campaigns underway.