Wallabies skipper Nathan Sharpe says all the talk about expansive game plans will count for little if Australia doesn’t match it up front with South Africa in their Rugby Championship Test in Pretoria on Saturday.
Both teams have new five-eighths for the Loftus Versfeld clash; Australia’s Kurtley Beale and Springbok Johan Goosen, who share the exciting ability to run the ball and attack the line.
“He’s trained the best this week that he’s trained this year that I’ve seen, so that probably speaks for where his mind-set is at,” Sharpe said of Beale.
“All the guys are really hopeful for him and the team that he translates that in his performance on the weekend.
“He’s a critical player for us.”
Sharpe backed his forwards to give Beale the platform to shine after matching the big Boks in their last clash in Perth, where his team pushed their winning streak against South Africa to five with a 26-19 victory.
“I reckon they’ll play a pretty traditional game but when they get 30 or 40 metres out they’ll have a crack and try to go wide because they’ve got speed out there and they’ve obviously picked a five-eighth to try and take advantage of those opportunities,” Sharpe said.
“But it will be much the same for us.
“They will look for a dominant performance up front and if we can stem that, it makes it hard to play wide from there.”
He predicted that 20-year-old Goosen, in his first start and only his third Test, would be under pressure after replacing Morne Steyn, a Loftus crowd favourite.
After being forced to come from behind to win their last two Tests, the Wallabies are intent on getting a good start to take the volatile Loftus crowd out of the equation, which Wallabies hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau described as an extra player.
“Playing South Africa in South Africa, they thrive on having that 16th man, having that extra home advantage is definitely a big play,” the NSW rake said.
“For us, it’s a mentality of making sure we get the better of them by being up front and not giving them any space to work with.”
Polota-Nau said the belief amongst the group to see a game out was palpable, but they didn’t want to put themselves in that position again.
It will be the last Test in South Africa for the retiring Sharpe, who is set to become the equal second most-capped Wallaby alongside former flanker George Smith with 110. Former captain George Gregan is Australia’s most capped player with 139 Tests.
Sharpe said the opportunity to crack their first ever win at Loftus was “as good as it gets”.
“The record speaks volumes for how hard it is to play there but we’ve got confidence about going there,” he said.
“We started real well last time we played and we let them back into the game. We know the opportunity is there and we’re bloody excited by it.”
