Rugby Championship News

S.Africa v Australia Rugby Championship Preview

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 Out of the last five Rugby Championship matches between South Africa’s Springboks and Australia’s Wallabies the Springboks have won three and Australia two.

Out of the last ten matches between the teams the Springboks have won four and the Wallabies six including the Rugby World Cup quarter final in 2011.

Overall South Africa have played Australia 79 times since 1933 and the Springboks have won 44 matches or 56% of the matches between the teams.

The average score when the Springboks play the Wallabies across all venues is: South Africa 19 Australia 17.

This weekend the match will be played in South Africa so the Springboks will have home advantage. In the 79 matches between the teams South Africa have had home advantage on 42 occasions and they have won 32 matches or 76% of their home matches.

The average score when South Africa play Australia at home is : South Africa 22 Australia 14.

Looking even closer South Africa have hosted Australia 11 times at Newlands and they have won 8 matches or 73% of the clashes. In the 1995 Rugby World Cup South Africa beat Australia 27-18 in the tournament opener and since that time the teams have met six times in Cape Town and all six matches have been won by South Africa.

At Newlands the average score when the Springboks play the Wallabies is South Africa 17 Australia 14 so while Australia have only won three times in Cape Town they do manage to contain the Springboks better at this venue than they do on average in South Africa.

In terms of selection South Africa have made three changes (one positional) to the starting side that lost to the All Blacks two weeks ago. Francois Louw and Ruan Pienaar are both injured so they are unavailable.

There are also four changes on the bench, with Cobus Reinach in line to make his Springbok debut alongside the experienced trio of Bakkies Botha, Schalk Burger and JP Pietersen.

In the starting side Teboho Mohoje and Francois Hougaard have been included for Saturday’s fifth round Test while Francois Louw’s injury means a positional switch for Marcell Coetzee in the starting team. Mohoje comes in for Louw and Hougaard comes in for Pienaar.

Australia on the other hand have made a number of changes to the side that beat Argentina with Adam Ashley-Cooper, Joe Tomane and Saia Fainga’a returning to the starting side.

Benn Robinson comes back into the match day squad on the replacements bench while James Hanson will provide back up for Fainga’a.

In terms of form Australia had a tough start to the Rugby Championship with matches against New Zealand. After keeping the All Blacks to a draw they were well beaten in their second match. Since then they have won both matches although against South Africa they scored 10 points late in the match while Bryan Habana was in the sin bin.

Australia beat the Springboks at home in South Africa in 2010 and 2011 but they left as the losing team on their last two matches. In both of those matches they could only score 8 points.

South Africa have not been at their best in this year’s tournament. They were unconvincing against Argentina but looked a better side on tour even though they still lost. At home they have won their last four matches.

The Springboks came close to losing in two of those matches (Wales and Argentina) but they held on to win and they have enough experience to do the same this week.

The Wallabies will need to be at their best in this contest if they want to win as every Wallaby team that has visited Cape Town in the last 19 years has lost including the 1999 side that won the Rugby World Cup.

The Bookies have given Australia a 9 point start for this Match – with an offer of a FREE $250.00 Bet. Home advantage in the Rugby Championship and although Australian Rugby is on a high in 2014 South Africa should be good enough to win this. South Africa should win by 5.

This Match will be shown on TV in NZ, Aus, SA and in the UK on Sky Sports 2/HD on the Red Button.

Average score: South Africa 19 Australia 17

Last five results
06 Sep 2014 SAF v AUS 23-24 Subiaco Oval, Perth Australia
28 Sep 2013 SAF v AUS 28-8 Newlands, Cape Town
07 Sep 2013 SAF v AUS 38-12 Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
29 Sep 2012 SAF v AUS 31-8 Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria
08 Sep 2012 SAF v AUS 19-26 Subiaco Oval, Perth Australia

South Africa’s overall record against Australia
Played 79 , Wins 44, Losses 34 , Draws 1

Match No.8: South Africa v Australia
Date : 27 September 2014
Venue : Newlands, Cape Town, South Africa
Referee: Nigel Owens
Assistant Ref 1:Wayne Barnes
Assistant Ref 2:Mathieu Raynal
TMO : Graham Hughes

Teams

South Africa

15 Willie le Roux , 14 Cornal Hendricks , 13 Jan Serfontein , 12 Jean de Villiers (c) , 11 Bryan Habana , 10 Handre Pollard , 9 Francois Hougaard , 8 Duane Vermeulen 23 , 7 Teboho “Oupa” Mohoje , 6 Marcell Coetzee , 5 Victor Matfield (vic) , 4 Eben Etzebeth , 3 Jannie du Plessis , 2 Adriaan Strauss , 1 Tendai Mtawarira

Replacements:16 Bismarck du Plessis , 17 Trevor Nyakane , 18 Marcel van der Merwe , 19 Bakkies Botha , 20 Schalk Burger , 21 Cobus Reinach , 22 Pat Lambie , 23 JP Pietersen

Australia

15 Israel Folau, 14 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 13 Tevita Kuridrani, 12 Matt Toomua, 11 Joe Tomane, 10 Bernard Foley, 9 Nick Phipps, 8 Ben McCalman, 7 Michael Hooper (c) , 6 Scott Fardy, 5 Rob Simmons, 4 Sam Carter, 3 Sekope Kepu, 2 Saia Fainga’a ,1 James Slipper

Replacements: 16 James Hanson, 17 Benn Robinson, 18 Ben Alexander, 19 James Horwill, 20 Scott Higginbotham, 21 Nic White, 22 Kurtley Beale, 23 Rob Horne.

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