How did Boks lose with these stats against Australia?

The Boks will still be smarting after squandering a host of opportunities in their humbling 25-17 defeat against Australia in their opening Rugby Championship tour match at the Adelaide Oval on Saturday.

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The Wallabies outscored the visitors by three tries to two – both which were scored by replacement loose forward Kwagga Smith – while converting two penalties to one by the Boks.

When taking a closer look at some of the official Sanzaar statistics, there are some quite crazy figures that pop up, while it becomes clearer how the Boks were their own worst enemy.

It’s clear that they were completely off their game when it came to clinically finishing opportunities, and that’s why this has been a key focus area ahead of Saturday’s rematch in Sydney.

In terms of attacking statistics, the Boks in fact made 436m to just 280 from the Wallabies, while beating 24 defenders to Australia’s 14. The visitors also made seven clean breaks compared to just four from the home team.

Despite all this dominance and while enjoying 54% of possession, the Boks could only manage two late consolation tries when the game was already lost. It paints a clear picture of how South Africa are currently lacking a killer instinct on attack.

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Interestingly, the Boks did make more tackles (104 to 95), while Australia missed as many as 24 tackles, and yet couldn’t make them pay.

In statistics that you will very rarely see for this Springboks side, it’s certainly notable that they also in fact kicked less than the opposition (20 to 21), with a clear indication that the Boks moved away from their usual aerial game strengths.

Whether they were looking to evolve their attack, or simply went off script, is certainly another talking point.

Notably, the Wallabies had just a 53.8% success rate at their lineouts, with the Boks dominating yet another facet of play without gaining much reward on the scoreboard.

In terms of penalties, the Wallabies conceded a whopping 16 penalties (to nine from the Boks), and received two yellow cards.

All in all, it seems rather unbelievable that the Boks were unable to come away with a victory on the basis of most of these statistics.

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The Boks have fallen to the bottom of the Rugby Championship standings

Standings (played, won, drawn, lost, points scored, points conceded, bonus points, total)

Argentina      3 2 0 1 99 76 1 9

Australia      3 2 0 1 83 91 1 9

New Zealand    3 1 0 2 63 74 1 5

South Africa   3 1 0 2 66 70 0 4

Points allocation

4: win

2: draw

1: scoring at least three tries more than opponents; losing by fewer than eight points

0: loss without any bonus points

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RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS TO DATE

1st round

South Africa 26 New Zealand 10

Argentina 26 Australia 41

2nd round

South Africa 23 New Zealand 35

Argentina 48 Australia 17

Leading scorers

Points

54: Boffelli (ARG)

32: Pollard (RSA)

25: Mo’unga (NZL)

Tries

3: Gonzalez (ARG), McReight (AUS)

2: Gallo (ARG), Ikitua (AUS), Smith (RSA), Taukei’aho (NZL)

Rugby Championship fixtures

Next round: Saturday, 3 September

In Hamilton, New Zealand

New Zealand v Argentina – 09:35 (SA time)

In Sydney, Australia

Australia v South Africa – 11:35 (SA time)