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AS statements go at the start of a World Cup year, they don’t come much better than a five try to two triumph over Australia and Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus should feel enthused about what he saw in the first test match of 2019.

As omens go it was a good one for South African fans thirsting for World Cup success too. In 1999, when Erasmus was wearing the Springbok No 6, the Boks did start off with a big win over Italy, but in their first proper game they lost to Wales in Cardiff. With just two exceptions, all the other World Cup years have started off with flat performances or with defeat.

Those two exceptions were 1995, when Kitch Christie’s team smashed what was then West Samoa by 60, and 2007, when England toured South Africa with an understrength squad and got annihilated. Those just happened to be the two previous years that South Africa won the World Cup.

It is way too early to stake your life-savings on the Boks doing it again in Japan in a few months time, but the 35-17 win at their favourite ground, Emirates Airlines Park, by a South African team some way short of full strength over a full strength Wallaby team should have provided a massive boost for the confidence levels of both the Bok players and their fans.

A lot will depend on how they follow up against the All Blacks, who fielded an experimental team in their Championship opener in Buenos Aires and nearly lost, in Wellington this coming Saturday. The win over the Aussies, in particular the margin by which it was attained, has already set the Boks up as the All Blacks’ biggest challengers from the southern hemisphere.

Another at the Westpac Stadium will see the Boks increase their current one-point lead on the Championship table and head to the World Cup riding a wave of momentum.

It was Cobus Reinach who went over for the fifth try to clinch the bonus point off the last play of the match to make it three tries to the two Bok scrumhalves between them, but it was 23-year-old Herschel Jantjies who deservedly walked away with the man of the match award after a cool and yet inspired first appearance in the green and gold.

In so doing, the Stormers No 9 vindicated Erasmus’ boldest selection of the first week of the international season and confirmed himself as having the potential to do what the then 20-year-old Frans Steyn did for the Boks at the 2007 World Cup should injury to first choice Faf de Klerk make it necessary.

In fact, more than that, Jantjies has probably ensured that the sometime up and down De Klerk has the sort of competition that players need to keep them continually razor-sharp. Reinach didn’t look too shabby either when he came on to break the gap seen in his international career since he opted to move overseas. Suddenly the Boks have depth in a position where previously they were lacking.

There were fears beforehand that the Boks might be rusty as many players were either coming back off injury or, like the aforementioned Reinach, back after several years away playing overseas. And there were some elements of rust in the first half, and Erasmus readily acknowledged afterwards that his team might have been in trouble had it not been for some of the individual touches of magic produced in that first half.

Individual touches such as the hand Jantjies played in either the creation or scoring of both first half tries, the vision and skill of Pieter-Steph du Toit, who kicked to set up the second, the pace shown by Sbu Nkosi in helping lay on the first after taking advantage of some sublime handling from a trio of players that included veteran prop Tendai ‘Beast’ Mtawarira.

And then there was Francois Louw. The Bath No 8 was the player in the back row who was set up as the so-called fetcher, and just like he did in tandem with Marcell Coetzee in the corresponding match in Australia in 2015, he outdid the Wallabies at what most would consider their game.

It was Louw’s turn-over at the breakdown deep inside his own half that set the Boks up for that first try, and he was in deadly form for the rest of the game too. He couldn’t have been far away himself from walking away with the man of the match award, and only didn’t do so because Jantjies was so irrepressible in his first match.

It wasn’t just Jantjies’ tries but also his crisp service, his brave tackling, his willingness to engage the Wallabies defence around the fringes, his decision-making and the accuracy of his box-kicking that impressed. Outside him his namesake Elton revelled in the crisp service he received and didn’t put a foot wrong on a night where he also slotted five out of five conversions.

There was a stage in that first half where the Bok rush defence system lacked accuracy and left holes for the Wallabies to exploit, and they were fortunate that Michael Hooper’s team weren’t able to capitalise.

You wouldn’t say any of that was completely unanticipated, however, as it was the first game of the season and some combinations were playing together for the first time. You always expected the Boks to become more assured and settled the longer the game lasted, and they did that around their scrum and the power game of the forwards in the second half.

Whereas the first half statistics reflected that the Springboks had to make twice as many tackles as their opponents, in the second half that statistic was emphatically reversed as the Boks started to dominate possession.

Yes, 14 points were scored in the 10 minutes when Wallaby reserve prop Taniele Tupuo was off the field after being yellow-carded for his shoulder charge on Rynhardt Elstadt, but the momentum shift came before then. The Wallabies looked rattled the moment the Bok pack shifted into forward gear.

The replacements all did their job and Erasmus would have flown to New Zealand knowing that he has plenty of options in most positions. For instance, the aforementioned Frans Steyn, back in Bok colours for the first time in two years, took the ball up and gave the Boks the directness that perhaps they were missing from their attacking game earlier. He looks committed and determined, and when he is, that is a massive positive for the Boks.

Lizo Gqoboka scrummed strongly on debut and also looked strong with ball in hand, Vincent Koch pulled off a crucial turn-over and Schalk Brits showed what a dynamic impact sub he could be too on a day where all the players in the match day squad can feel they did their bit to ensure that the World Cup year got off to a resoundingly positive start.

It certainly was a performance good enough to create the sort of healthy competition for places that the squad needs at the start of a World Cup year.

Most of all though the five log points might pale in comparison to the feel good factor that is so vital at this juncture of the build-up to a World Cup, and it ups the ante ahead of Saturday’s rematch between the two teams that produced such a thrilling game and finish at the same Wellington venue last year.

In 2018 those who suggested the Boks might win at Westpac were scoffed at. They won’t be this time. — SuperSport