Bok record makes dreary reading

To say that Brisbane and the Springboks haven’t been the best of mates down the years is putting it rather mildly. The venue for next weekend’s Rugby Championship clash against the Wallabies has, down the years, proved to be a graveyard for visiting Bok sides.

It doesn’t help to throw out a reminder that the Wallabies have been taught a rugby lesson over the past two weeks by New Zealand, at this stage neither they or the Boks are in the All Blacks’ class.

A positive result next week though would go a long way towards giving the inexperienced Boks some kind of confidence before having to look the All Black haka in the eye in Christchurch the following week.

To get back to Brisbane, the results in four of the last five times the Boks have played there makes for dismal reading, with the lone exception the record-breaking 38-12 win the Boks recorded there in 2013 under former coach Heyneke Meyer.

But in 2006 they suffered a record 49-0 loss there, in 2009 they got hammered 21-6 in the year they won the Tri-Nations, in 2010 the score was 30-13 to the Aussies while last year the Boks lost 24-20.

The Boks are also not in a very good space right now after their poor showing in Salta with flyhalf Morne Steyn remarking that “they are currently playing against themselves” and bookmakers have already predicted the Boks will likely suffer two more losses in the next two weeks.

Thus far their only three wins have been a 32-26 win over Ireland in the second Test at Ellis Park, a 19-13 win a week later in Port Elizabeth in the third Test and a 30-23 win over Argentina in Nelspruit after they had to come from behind on each occasion.

Their defeats of 26-20 to Ireland in the opening Test in Cape Town and 26-24 to the Pumas last weekend have also been close affairs, but the concern has been they have failed to impress in all five Tests except perhaps for the final 15 minutes at Ellis Park.

With the help of altitude.