Counterpunch floors the Wallabies
Sat, 28 Aug 2010 23:07
How to stop the slide: Rocky Elsom gives the Wallabies some direction
Wallaby captain Rocky Elsom felt that the Springboks' ability to 'counter-punch' was the difference between the teams in Pretoria in Saturday.
South Africa finally won a match in the 2010 Tri-Nations, beating Australia 44-31 in an entertaining nine-try thriller in Pretoria on Saturday.
The Wallabies, who raced into a 14-0 lead in a manic opening four minutes and scored their bonus-point fourth try in the 26th minute (for a 28-17 lead), found the rarified air of the Highveld and the determined Springboks just too hot to handle.
Australia looked to speed up the game and caught the Boks napping early, but after leading 28-24 at the half-time break they saw the Boks race clear in the second half (which the home team won 20-3).
"Although we got off to a flier, the Boks retaliated just as fast," Elsom said.
"It ended up being a fast game for the full 80 [minutes]."
Elsom said his team was disappointed after they couldn't sustain the early lead his side had put on the Boks.
"We've been around long enough to know they would come back at us hard.
"We needed to hold onto the ball at the end, and we didn't do that. Not winning the ball back at the end of the game cost us and the quality of the ball we received later on wasn't what we wanted."
"Possession," Elsom said, when he asked what the difference was after the break.
"We got restricted ball from set piece and that proved costly for us.
"With the game moving that fast it was whoever was going to hold onto the ball that was going to win it.
"We took our chance early on, but just came up short in the end.
"In the second half we did not retain possession enough to win."
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