To
be beaten by the world’s best on their home ground is one thing; to lose to
South Africa in Brisbane would be another altogether. That’s why this
Saturday’s test against the Boks in many ways is more important than last weekend’s All Blacks effort.

The
Wallabies are in the unfortunate position of being under much more pressure than the disrupted South
African team. South Africa has excuses to hand if they don’t win, Australia has
none. Anything less than a convincing win will be very damaging for the
Wallabies’ rebuilding process in general and several players in particular.

And
that starts with the million dollar baby, Matt Giteau. Giteau has plenty of fans and doubters – he certainly has talent, but he’s no
longer a youngster whose erratic performances can be forgiven. It’s time he put
his hand up at in-centre with a series of dominant international games or we
should get used to the idea that he’s a top Super 14 player, but not world
class.

Coach
Knuckles Connolly said nice things about Matt Rogers when benching him to give
Giteau the run-on role, but Rogers was one of the many who never found their
front foot against NZ. The spot is up for grabs. The bigger worry is that
either Rogers or Giteau will take Larkham’s place should the five-eighth be
injured – and neither would greatly concern their main foes in that position.

Most
attention though will be on the forwards’ battle – a fight we’re facing without
Rodzilla Blake to anchor the scrum. The comedy aspect has already been provided
by the Boks with a story about putting a bounty on George Smith’s dreadlocks.
Given the Boks’ reputation as a rather dour bunch, it’s not a bad effort. The
silly thing is the SMH and Smith seem to be taking it seriously.

Meanwhile,
congratulations to Adelaide for winning a leg of the IRB sevens
world series next April – and more fool Melbourne for not bidding.