Aussies Aim To Smash South Africa

Illawarra Mercury

Saturday August 14, 1999

The Wallabies are preparing to pounce on the embattled Springboks early in tonight's Tri Nations rugby Test in Cape Town to prevent the deafening Newlands crowd from spurring the home team out of its rut.

The Wallabies are shooting for their first Test victory in South Africa in six years and they'll start short-priced favourites against a Springboks team enduring its worst losing run in 25 years.

But powerful winger Ben Tune conceded yesterday that the Wallabies' hopes would be dashed if they reproduced the sluggish starts which have troubled them in their two Tri Nations matches this season.

The Springboks pushed Australia early before faltering in Brisbane last month but the Wallabies paid the ultimate price one week later when they collapsed beneath the weight of an vengeful New Zealand pack in Auckland.

The Wallabies were beaten before they fired a shot at the All Blacks and Tune said the team was conscious of reversing the trend to quieten the capacity crowd of more than 52,000 awaiting the first sniff of Australian blood.

``We played here in the Super 12 (this year) and it was only three-quarters full but it was still extremely loud," Tune said.

``I can imagine how loud it will be with a full house.

``They love their rugby and they'll be just as parochial even though the team has lost four in a row.

``We're expecting the Springboks to come out firing after all the criticism they've had this week and we're looking to get through that and then get on top of them.

``The guys were pretty disappointed about what happened in New Zealand because we didn't give ourselves a chance and we know it's an area of our game we have to fix up before the World Cup (in October)."

AUSTRALIA: Matthew Burke, Ben Tune, Daniel Herbert, Nathan Grey, Joe Roff, Tim Horan, George Gregan, Toutai Kefu, David Wilson (c), Matt Cockbain, David Giffin, Tom Bowman, Andrew Blades, Phil Kearns, Richard Harry. Reserves: Jason Little, Rod Kafer, Chris Whitaker, Tiaan Strauss, Mark Connors, Patricio Noriega, Michael Foley.

SOUTH AFRICA: Percy Montgomery, Deon Kayser, Robbie Fleck, Brendan Venter, Pieter Rossouw, Jannie de Beer, Joost van der Westhuizen (c), Johan Erasmus, Andre Vos, Andre Venter, Albert van den Berg, Selborne Boome, Cobus Visagie, Naka Drotske, Os du Randt. Reserves: Breyton Paulse, Gaffie du Toit, Werner Swanepoel, Ruben Kruger, Mark Andrews, Ollie le Roux, Chris Rossouw.

Referee: Colin Hawke (NZ).