The Springboks held out the Wallabies 23-12 in Port Elizabeth on Saturday to keep their flickering Rugby Championship hopes alive – at least until the All Blacks take on Argentina in Buenos Aires on Sunday morning UAE time (Kick off 02:40).
Here is the match in numbers:
69 – the number of tackles South Africa were forced to make more than the Wallabies. The Boks made 146 tackles while the Aussies completed just 77.
17 – the number of tackles made by Springboks flanker Pieter-Steph du Toit – the most in the match. Du Toit also made four runs for 20 metres in an all round performance.
7 – the number of Springbok tacklers who finished above the first Wallaby in the tackle count: Du Toit 17, Franco Mostert 15, Malcolm Marx 14, Andre Esterhuizen 13, Sikhumbuzo Notshe 10, Siya Kolisi 10 and even Cheslin Kolbe 9. The top Aussie was Reece Hodge on 8.
689 – metres made in attack by the Wallabies with Dane Haylett-Petty and Michael Hooper topping the list on 98 metres, with Kurtley Beale on 90 and Reece Hodge on 85.
116 – the highest individual attacking metres in the game made by Bok captain Siya Kolisi, who accounted for 23.8 percent of South Africa’s total of 488 metres
100 – percentage of scrums won by both teams – the Wallabies winning a perfect nine from nine and the Springboks eight from eight
19 – the number of handling errors in the match – 12 for the Wallabies and seven for the Springboks – caused by some bruising defence
Aphiwe Dyantyi celebrates after scoring the opening try in just 23 seconds
23 – seconds, all the time it took for Aphiwe Dyantyi to grab an intercept from a Kurtley Beale long ball and dive over for the first try of the match
13 – penalties conceded by South Africa to nine for the Wallabies, a run of four from the Boks in the second half saw Dyantyi yellow carded in the 65th minute
26 – turnovers conceded in the match with the Springboks giving up 10 and the Wallabies 16
516 – kicking metres for the Boks to the Wallabies 356 metres, with South Africa going to the boot 20 times and Australia just 14
