Ten minutes of madness: How the Wallabies beat the Boks with 11 men

Wallabies coach Les Kiss prides himself on having every detail covered when preparing his teams.

Ahead of facing the Springboks in Perth on Sunday night, Kiss had challenged his side to work on contingency plans, such as losing five-eighth Ben Donaldson while not having an experienced playmaker in reserve. That would have been a simple scenario to deal with compared to what actually took place.

Ultimately, nothing could have prepared Kiss or his team for the 10 minutes and 30 seconds of madness that ended the Test match against South Africa.

The Wallabies led by 25 points before yellow cards to Harry Wilson, Ryan Lonergan, Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii and Hunter Paisami left the team with 11 players against the world champions. Here’s how the Wallabies hung on and won the Test.

Wilson had enjoyed one of his best Test performances until referee Andrea Piardi gave him a yellow card for a high tackle on South African hooker Malcolm Marx.

Wilson was his team’s top tackler, making 13 and not missing one. Marx dipped late, and Wilson made glancing high contact. He left the field with just over 10 minutes left on the clock.

With Wilson absent and the Wallabies pack weakened, South Africa took full advantage a minute later.

The Springbok scrum was metres away from the Australian line with centre Hunter Paisami packing down in Wilson’s place. Lonergan dives at the ball illegally while South African back-rower Jasper Wiese has it at his feet. A penalty try is awarded, and Lonergan is off the field for 10 minutes. Kiss later said the team remained calm amid these scenes.

“We were asking a lot of questions about what was happening; we were trying to get messages down the sideline and just get an idea of where things were,” Kiss said.

“The pleasing thing for me was that the group out there on the pitch there was a nice calmness and focus about what they had to do next. Hearing that back and seeing how they looked and felt in those tough moments, that’s incredibly pleasing.”

The Wallabies are tired, with spaces opening up all over their defensive line. Springboks playmaker Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu charges through a gap and passes to centre Canan Moodie, who looks certain to score a try.

Fullback Tom Wright yells for cover, and it comes. Donaldson and Max Jorgensen manage to mow down Moodie. Wright believes that the team was playing completely on instinct.

“We were just trying to bust ass,” Wright said.

“I think when you’re down, and there is no real plan, it’s about how hard can you hustle and make it as difficult for the opposition to score as possible. That’s what we were talking about and trying to execute when we didn’t have the ball.”

Suaalii is yellow-carded for offside, leaving the Wallabies with 12 men on the field. Piardi is having to use a mobile phone to speak to television match official Matteo Liparini due to communication problems.

He explains to Wallabies stand-in captain Jeremy Williams and South Africa skipper Andre Esterhuizen the difficulties he is having with the technology, pleading that he is doing his best. After the game, Williams had every sympathy for the officials.

“The refs had a really tough job; they obviously had problems with the radios and things like that, so they did the best they could while they were out there, and I don’t envy that job at all, they did an awesome job,” Williams said.

Two minutes later, Morne van den Berg scores a converted try for South Africa, pulling the score back to 42-31.

With just 12 teammates, Wright took a gamble, shooting out of the line and catching a pass from Esterhuizen.

The fullback finishes under the posts, thinking he has sealed the game for the Wallabies, but Piardi’s blue mobile phone comes back out.

After a quick review, the try is rubbed out after a high tackle from centre Hunter Paisami, leaving the Wallabies with 11 players on the field.

“That’s how it goes, isn’t it? We said we wanted to make it difficult for them. We knew that they needed to score points and wanted to run,” Wright said.

“We said if we were to concede a little bit of space anywhere, they were going to have to go around us.

“We were hustling, showing that care and connection that we talked about during the week. The ball fell favourably for me; sadly, a high shot was the call that we came back to, and we had to go from there.”

Down to 11 men, the Wallabies are forced to defend desperately. The Springboks have a luxury of space, but for three minutes the Wallabies hold them off, shaving precious time off the clock.

“I haven’t played with 11 before. That’s the game. You can have a plan until you get punched in the face. We didn’t get punched in the face, so to speak, but certainly we weren’t expecting to play with 11,” Wright said.

“You don’t expect to play with 14 or 13 or 12, but you certainly don’t expect to play with 11 ... we certainly can’t fault our effort and how much we put into defending our tryline.”

In the 79th minute, South Africa prop Ox Nche crashes over for a converted try to reduce the Wallabies’ lead to four points. There is time for one more play, and for South Africa to win the Test.

Wilson has been sitting on the sideline for 10 minutes, unable to help his team and desperate to come on. After getting on the field, the captain’s message is simple: try to get the ball back.

With the clock on 81 minutes, 13 Wallabies hang on for a famous victory after South African playmaker Quan Horn is penalised for an accidental offside.

“I had fresh legs then, so I was going to chase after everything, because when you let your team down, it always hurts, especially when we’re in such a strong position when I did that [high tackle for the yellow card].

“So I was hurting there on the sideline, but I just loved the way the boys scrapped for each other and the care for the jersey.”

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