Peter Bills: Clueless sides sink to abysmal depths in Sydney shocker

Australia 20 South Africa 18

Former Wallaby coach Bob Dwyer put into words the feelings of 60,000 at Sydney's Telstra Stadium after one of the poorest tests of recent years.

Dwyer was incredulous at the ineptitude of both sides, the lamentable technical level and the crop of basic errors that littered the play, especially in a woeful first half.

"The whole thing was terrible. South Africa had no comprehension of what they were doing and Australia weren't any better. All the Springboks can do is run at the opposition, eventually win the ball back, run at someone else and keep doing it. Sometimes they need six phases to go five yards.

"If this was third against fourth in the world, then world rugby has a serious problem. At the best it was very, very disappointing. Australia kicked the ball 31 times in the first 30 minutes alone. There was no shape or structure to the match. It was terrible stuff."

Dwyer was right. Australia never got going seven days after pushing the New Zealanders so close, and their forwards were beaten in scrums, lineouts and the loose. How on earth they managed to win despite having no platform whatever from which to build anything was extraordinary and an alarming indictment on the poverty of the South Africans' game.

Any decent side would have put 25 points or more on the woeful Australians. But the Springboks hit absolute rock bottom with this performance and a rethink is required within their camp. Their tally of expensive errors was dreadful.

If they pretend that a desperately needed win was snatched from their grasp five minutes from the end only because substitute Mat Rogers raced into the corner and Stirling Mortlock's match-winning conversion wobbled over off the left-hand post, like a drunk bouncing off a lamp post, they will delude themselves.

That late score summed up the South Africans' disastrous five-week Tri-Nations tour but it said everything about the state of Springbok rugby.

The first half was like a game of aerial ping-pong, played out against an eerily silent crowd in a stadium with almost 25,000 empty seats. Both sides had apparently decided the wet conditions meant they couldn't run the ball, so aimless downfield kicks rained down on both defences.

Those who stayed away were fortunate. Because even with forward ascendancy, the South Africans still couldn't win a test that was theirs for the taking. But of course back in Africa, they will probably improve, especially with new players.

The Springboks lost because they have no variety in their game.

Percy Montgomery's kicking was a disaster all night. He missed two regulation penalties in the first half - one from straight in front, the other on the 22.

His badly sliced 63rd-minute clearance kick gave the Wallabies an attacking lineout on the Springboks' 22 and from the drive, South Africa were penalised, Mortlock kicking the goal. Another three points hurled away.

Then there was Butch James' abject crossfield kick in the first half which was seized by Wallaby wing Mark Gerrard who scorched 50m to the line for the converted try.

Through these gifts, and Mortlock's first penalty in the 12th minute, Australia led 10-0 at the end of one of the worst first 40 minutes of test rugby I've seen. The standard was abysmal, below provincial level.

Yet out of the ashes of such dire deeds, a new South Africa emerged after halftime. They began to play their most convincing rugby of the tour, driving well, stepping and straightening in midfield and hammering at the Australian defence. Two penalties from James trimmed the lead to 10-6 within nine minutes of the re-start.

There was a growing conviction and hunger about the Boks, epitomised by Jaque Fourie's 54th-minute try.

But the rarefied air of a possible test triumph ill-suited these demoralised South Africans.

Mortlock's second penalty made it 13-all before South Africa scored again, Montgomery being driven over for the score. Crucially, James missed the conversion.

Australia threw on fresh legs to raise the tempo, pulling off the ponderous, tired looking Gregan and Larkham, as well as Smith.

Fatally, the Springboks did not reciprocate, apart from sending on Joe van Niekerk for the industrious Solly Tyibilika. The extra speed and energy close-in won the game for Australia, with Rogers' try.

South Africa have found all kinds of ways to lose tests matches on this tour. In its way, this latest example was perhaps the most dire. The Wallabies didn't even have to play to win it.

* Peter Bills is a rugby writer for Independent News & Media.