Fictional scientists in the 1993 blockbuster Jurrasic Park use frog DNA to fill in the gaps of a broken dinosaur code extracted from prehistoric mosquitoes and invent their own version of the real thing. If there is a complete DNA strand of ‘how to beat the rugby world champions’ waiting to be discovered somewhere deep underground, frozen in amber, no one has dug it up yet. The All black people found some pieces in the recent Greatest Rivalry series, the Wallabies dug up a bit more at the weekend. But nobody has the full code yet, despite Australia’s 42-38 win at Optus Stadium in Perth.
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There’s no doubt that science is getting closer to finding the answer, and the pack is widening on the Springboks. The idea of two or even three potential South African teams waiting in the wings to bring home ‘Bill’ to a World Cup winning three-peat next year has been completely exposed as the fiction that it really is.
Is Rassie Erasmus reducing the likelihood of South African success by repurposing his squad? Erasmus will argue it is a legitimate and necessary measure in a 12-month, 24-hour playing calendar that requires South African players to take part in competitions north and south of the equator. The vast majority ply their trade at the URC in the north while they are required to fill the July to September period with tours and tournaments in the south.
Erasmus is right, but also wrong according to historical precedent. Before the 2007 World Cup. New Zealand found in a similar territory. The All Blacks had won 22 of their previous 24 games before losing in that fateful quarter-final to France in Cardiff, and the coaching staff has become accustomed to winning with different personnel.
Sir Graham Henry and co were encouraged to request the withdrawal of 22 leading All Black contenders from the first half of Super Rugby, to take part in a conditioning program for the World Cup later in the year. A post-World Cup review by lawyer Mike Heron and NZ sports official Don Tricker criticized the lack of consultation with Super 14 franchises and other important stakeholders in the game.
Cohesion is expensive to buy, but too easy to give away. When the next World Cup rolled around four years later, the big change policy was buried. As Henry’s assistant, Sir Steve Hansen, pointedly announced: “I don’t know that you’ll see the same XV in full, we just can’t, but you might see the same 10 or 12 on a regular basis.” Amen to that.
Learn the lesson of 2007. It may seem like the Springboks have an abundance of talent who can switch and change the starting side without adversely affecting performance, but that’s just the way it seems. It is closer to wishful thinking than hard facts.
There were just two regular starters from the RGR series in Erasmus’ run-on side on Sunday, with another six – including the strongest front row in rugby on the planet – on the super-powered bench. Until 67th minute of play, Les Kiss’s rapidly developing Wallabies comfortably won 42-17. They achieved that dominant position on the scoreboard by filling some of the gaps in the ‘Bok-beating’ DNA left by the All Blacks series.
New Zealand attacked well enough in that series to average 4.25 tries per game, but were distinctly second best in both major set-pieces, at the breakdown and aerial contests. The DNA strand was often woefully incomplete, but the Wallabies were good enough to fill in the gaps in most of the missing pieces.
They started with a solid opening scrum effort led by prostitute Brandon Paenga-Amosa. It took previous Wallaby coaches too long to realize that ‘BPA’ is the best whore in Australia and he’s in Malcolm Marx’s class as a scrummager. There can be no greater praise in the modern game and the first South African feed showed there would be no repeat of the RGR scrum collapse.
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) September 28, 2026
It’s a ‘long scrum’ of about seven seconds from pass to pick-up, with Jan-Hendrik Wessels and Johan Grobbelaar feeling the pressure and easing down the left side of the Springbok front row all the way. Given the brutal departures of Wessels and Zac Porthen after the first Test loss to the All Blacks, you have to wonder if they have a role to play at the World Cup. Of those tried in the past five matches, Ox Nche, Wilco Louw and Thomas du Toit look a few steps ahead of any other options at the prop. Likewise, it’s Marx and a lot of fresh air to the next contender in the middle of the front row.
On the way out, the Wallabies reversed the RGR results and clearly had the best of the competition, despite the absence of luminaries Josh Canham, Nick Frost and Charlie Cale, and the presence of two veterans (Franco Mostert and Lood de Jager) in the opposition.
The invaluable Jeremy Williams won turnovers against a Springbok line on the ground and in the air in the space of two minutes earlier in the second period.
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) September 28, 2026
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) September 28, 2026
Without a stable attacking platform in the line, the Springbok maul never became an influential factor after Grobbelaar’s ninth-minute short-range try, another of the primary Springbok weapons was effectively neutralized. Will Mostert and De Jager be ready to fight as a back-up for Ruan Nortjé in 2027?
The breakdown results also raised questions about the value of twin open sides Marc van Staden and Paul de Villiers in the South African back row. De Villiers won three turnovers on the deck but the Wallabies still won the ruck time penalty count by eight to four. The experiment failed, and while Erasmus can afford one of Van Staden or De Villiers at the World Cup, he probably can’t afford both.
The biggest shock was yet to come. The most surprising turn of events in the RGR series was the Wallaby’s dominance of the airways, where the home side came far ahead with 11 return points to six in a contested kick game. They won the match on both sides of the pitch through Max Jorgenson or Joseph-Aukuso Sua’ali’i, whose switch to the wing was a huge success.
The ex-Sydney Rooster star started with a brilliant kick return and then set up a second try for Len Ikitau.
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) September 28, 2026
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) September 28, 2026
From the South African point of view, the second shot illustrates the huge gap between RGR starter Damian Willemse and his back-up Aphelela Fassi controlling the skies at the back, with Sua’ali’i effortlessly establishing his physical superiority as the ball crashes from the Western Australian skies. Jorgensen was also better than big Ethan Hooker on the other wing.
— William Bishop (@RPvids1994) September 28, 2026
The game in Perth will do nothing to further the claims of Fasi, Edwill van der Merwe, or for that matter Quan Horn to be part of South Africa’s World Cup squad. The Springboks could have a day on the 23rd that could lift the Webb Ellis Cup for a historic third time in 12 years. But 30 or 45 players who can win it? Pull the other one.
Meanwhile, the Wallabies are on the march under new head coach Kiss. He found a world-class scrum-half and goalkeeper in the form of Ryan Lonergan, and stuck with Paenga-Amosa as one of the best whores in the game. He had the guts to move Sua’ali’i to his natural spot, and is developing enviable depth in the back five forwards.
The race for the World Cup is heating up nicely. By the end of Jurassic Park, the dinosaurs had used their frog DNA to produce new offspring. To paraphrase Dr. Ian Malcolm, life finds a way to close the gap on the world champions.