Jake White: Never a better time for Boks

As much as the Springboks must still be bleeding internally from the 26-24 defeat to Argentina in Salta last weekend, you have to believe what an horrific time this really is for Australian rugby.

They are on the cusp of a seventh Test loss on the bounce and must be feeling desperate after comprehensive defeats by New Zealand in their opening matches and surrendering the Bledisloe Cup for the 14th consecutive season.

What they have going for them when they run out against the Boks next weekend is that the match is in Brisbane, a venue the Wallabies have invariably been comfortable at. Everything about playing at the Suncorp Stadium makes it almost perfect, from the logistics between the hotels and the training ground to the crowd and a surface which lends itself ideally to the quick, ball-in-hand game the Australians like to play.

It’s very much like the Boks feel playing at Ellis Park. There is a kind of built-in advantage about playing at a ground you feel comfortable at.

In their last five Tests against the Springboks in Brisbane, South Africa’s only victory there was a 38-12 victory there in the 2013 Rugby Championship, the others have all gone to the Wallabies. I have less than favourable personal memories of one of them, the 49-0 whitewash Australia racked up against us in the 2006 Tri-Nations. That still hurts.

I’ve said it before, but in the southern hemisphere championship, a lot depends on the schedule – who you play, when and where. This might just well be the match where the Wallabies are at their most vulnerable and they are desperate to break the run of losses forces them into a corner.

No matter what type of game you plan to play when you get out there – and the Australian preference would be for the multi-phase game – if that underlying desperation to turn things around kicks in, there is always the chance that the team can creep back into a shell of conservatism, which could well work to the advantage of the Springboks.

This should be viewed as a great opportunity to get back in the mix. For don’t forget that, apart from the Brumbies, the Australian sides didn’t set the world alight in Super Rugby this season.

I say this because Australia have some injuries to their backline which leaves them without experience like Matt Giteau and Rob Horne, and Samu Kerevi from the Reds, who started in Wellington last week, is relatively raw at Test level and a newcomer to the pivotal job of outside centre.

It raises a perception that the Wallabies could be vulnerable despite some less than convincing displays from the Springboks in recent Tests against Ireland and Argentina. But as the game in Brisbane is set to be a massive one, and as much as the All Blacks have opened a great opportunity for South Africa, a scheduled away game in the competition’s home-and-away format is never easy.

Jake White is South Africa’s World Cup-winning coach of 2007 and currently director of coaching at French top-tier outfit Montpellier.