Fantastic Folau chases record

The question the Australia media is asking is whether or not the Springboks can stop Israel Folau. Perhaps they should be asking whether their pack can live with the Boks.

Tom Decent in the Sydney Morning Herald, in previewing Saturday’s Rugby Championship clash in Perth, presented Folau’s attacking game as the biggest threat to the Springboks.

The Boks have identified Australia’s lineout as their big platform to secure primary attacking ball. The counter attacking threat of the Australian backs has also been acknowledged within the Bok coaching structure. It’s not a case of stop Folau or else. The Bok coaches have respect for the attacking ability of all the Aussie backs.

Privately they would have targeted Australia’s vulnerable scrum and also the hosts’ inconsistency at the breakdown.

There has been very little to separate the two teams statistically over the years. There has been the odd aberration, with South Africa twice hammering the Wallabies in South Africa in recent yeas, and the Wallabies famous 49-0 drubbing of the Springboks in 2006.

Ironically the Boks would win the World Cup a year later.

Contests in Australia, and particularly Perth, have always been close.

Folau, who scored eight tries in his first 35 Tests, has five from his last five Tests and, if he scores against the Springboks, he will equal David Campuses’ record of six in six successive Tests.

Sport24, to illustrate how little separates the two rugby nations in the Rugby Championship, reported the following:

Both the Springboks and the Wallabies have played 101 Rugby Championship matches.

Of those, each side has won 42 matches, lost 57 and drawn 2.

Even more bizarre is that, in all of that time, the Wallabies have conceded 2 472 Rugby Championship points to South Africa’s 2 473.

In the ‘points for’ column, the Boks have a slight advantage having amassed 2 197 points to Australia’s 2 147.