- Analysis
- Sport
- Rugby Union
- Australian rugby
The Wallabies are on a different planet to last year. Next to 2023, it’s a new galaxy
By Iain Payten
For a moment in Cape Town, it looked as though it could be 1984 all over again. No, not a dystopian story of surveillance and totalitarianism, but something just as menacing: a pushover try.
It remains one of the Wallabies’ most famous tries, and came on a grey afternoon 41 years ago when the Australian side turned up to Cardiff Arms Park and belted the mighty Wales side 28-9. In the 63rd minute, the unfancied Wallabies pack even humbled the powerhouse Welsh scrum by shoving them backwards for five metres and scoring.
“It was like, ‘Holy heck, this doesn’t happen’,” star Mark Ella recounted last year. “We’re from Australia.”
The Wallabies went onto complete the grand slam in 1984, kick-starting a successful two decades for Australian rugby. Colleague Peter FitzSimons argued at the weekend that the Wallabies’ win at Ellis Park was the equivalent of that grand slam triumph – a success of such magnitude it suddenly opened the eyes of a team to their true ceiling. An intravenous shot of confidence and belief.
And just as their forebears removed all doubt by taking Wales on – and down – through their famous scrum in 1984, for a moment it looked like the 2025 Wallabies had done the same to the Springboks in Cape Town. In the 68th minute, the Wallabies were trailing by six points and won a penalty. They kicked to the corner, and unlike the first Test win where tries came via flair and running play, this time the Wallabies went route one.
The Wallabies’ grand slam squad, ahead of their final clash against the Barbarians.Credit: Getty Images
With the powerhouse Springbok forward pack – the brutal backbone of consecutive World Cup wins – between them and the line, the Wallabies bulldozed a maul through them all to score via Brandon Paenga-Amosa.
It finished up as an “almost” story, of course. James O’Connor missed the conversion to take a lead into the last 10 minutes, and with the path of that sliding door forever unknown, the door actually taken led to an Aussie error, another Boks try and defeat.
There was to be no more history rewritten on this tour. It mattered, but not nearly enough to dilute the gains of a potentially game-changing fortnight for the Wallabies.
If we are fair dinkum, no one expected the Wallabies to get even close to the Springboks. Least of all the Boks. But the Aussies fly home having come close to being the third side in history to beat the Boks at home in consecutive Tests in the same year.
Since the last flickers of the golden era faded about 15 years ago, Wallabies sides have never lost the capability to pull off spectacular wins – against anyone. But they’ve mostly proved to be random, and one-off peaks, too.
The Wallabies’ performance in Cape Town, while being a loss, was something different. After years of struggle, it was a team that clearly believed it could and should win.
“I know it’s a loss, but it’s three tries apiece with a team that got destabilised early on,” Joe Schmidt said post-game.
Rob Valetini on the charge at DHL Stadium.Credit: Getty Images
“You know, I think it does give belief. I think it felt like we made more line breaks, we created dangerous situations, we didn’t finish them well enough and that’s a credit to a Springbok side.”
Since taking over last year, Schmidt has spoken often about the journey of progress never being linear, but rather a ride of peaks and troughs. Success, Schmidt said, comes when the differences of those wave heights are hard to tell apart.
So while an eight-point defeat in Cape Town stung, it won’t be the thing remembered by the Wallabies as they build towards the 2027 World Cup. What will be banked is defying injury, hanging tough and then rolling a potential match-winning try straight through the Boks’ bomb squad.
It feeds belief for the next one. Schmidt also likes to point out that just because progress doesn’t always translate to results, it doesn’t mean it’s not happening.
Kurt-Lee Arendse of the Springboks runs with the ball in a comfortable win in 2024.Credit: Getty Images
Everyone remembers Schmidt coaching Ireland to their first win in 111 years over New Zealand in 2016 in Chicago. Most have forgotten the Irish went within a whisker of doing it three years before under Schmidt, but lost 24-22 via a heartbreaking All Blacks goal in overtime. The Irish players didn’t forget.
Their head-to-record since 2016? Five wins each.
When looking at the incredible progress of the Wallabies since he walked into the rubble of post-2023 and got to work, it’s easy to see why some believe this will become one of Schmidt’s greatest coaching feats.
Compared with this time last year – two losses to the Boks with an aggregate of 63-19 – the Wallabies are on a different planet. And up against 2023 – a 43-12 drubbing in Pretoria – it’s a different galaxy.
“We feel like we’re playing a little bit of catch-up,” Schmidt said. “This time last year, the Springboks, I thought in a canter, put two bonus point victories on us without having to stress too much.
Joe Schmidt and Rob Kearney celebrate the famous victory over New Zealand in 2016.Credit: Getty
“Compared to where we are now, I feel like we’re growing our game and we’re building some confidence with the players. It’s a group I’m enjoying immensely.”
There is a lot of road yet to travel before the Rugby World Cup, starting with a Pumas side that beat the Wallabies by a record margin last year and downed South Africa a week later.
But perhaps the best show of respect the Wallabies received in Cape Town was Rassie Erasmus ditching all those odd tricks and fully reverting to boring Bok-ball.
The Springboks kicked the dimples off the ball, 35 times. Centre Jesse Kriel had two passes and three runs in 80 minutes. And all this just a few days after accusing Australia of playing that very style in Johannesburg, and that it was too limited to win the next World Cup.
Schmidt couldn’t resist a dig back by pointing out the Wallabies had beat 30 defenders, but Erasmus was just relieved they’d ground out a win. They needed the belief, he said.
“The big thing for us was to try and win, and not let them get a bonus point,” he said.
The back-to-back world champs, at home, stoked about the Wallabies just missing a bonus point.
We are not in Kansas any more, Toto.
Watch all the action from the 2025 Rugby Championship on Stan Sport.