Wallabies v Boks: the biggest test match of the year

They couldn’t have scripted this one better. This weekend sees the Wallabies and Springboks face off in a test that, for both sides, has a ton riding on it. In fact, you could probably call it the biggest of the year – and it doesn’t even involve the All Blacks.

As far as off-field dramas go, Australian rugby is facing its biggest in years. The axing of the Western Force has been just that, leaving a gaping wound that has festered into talks of a breakaway competition.

The Wallabies themselves are keen to get themselves up off the canvas after two successive losses to the All Blacks. Both were in dramatically different circumstances, although the one positive Michael Cheika can take out of it is that the most recent was the courageous display in Dunedin rather than the horror-show in Sydney.

This is a fight for Australian rugby’s soul, right in the very city where the uprising led by mining magnate Andrew Forrest is happening. His somewhat fantastical claims that the Force will spearhead a new rival competition to Super Rugby have yet to convince most people, but if nothing else it shows just how deeply disengaged parts of the Australian rugby community are from their governing body.

It brings back memories of the tumultuous birth of professional rugby and the role a couple of mega rich Australian businessmen played in it. So it’s hard to think that the Wallabies themselves won’t have thoughts of the whole saga running through their heads when they run on the field.

Meanwhile, the Springboks have staged a rebirth of their own. They were the laughing stock of international rugby for two years running – first losing to Japan at the Rugby World Cup, then inexplicably going down to Italy on last year’s end of season tour, plus a complete thrashing at home by the All Blacks sandwiched in between.

Whatever they did over the offseason worked, though. Well, so far at least. Allister Coetzee has finally found a way to get the best out of his Boks, beating France three times and comfortably accounting for the Pumas in successive weeks.

And it’s been pretty good to watch, too. But this will be the moment of truth, in a city that’s probably as close to a home venue outside of your own country as you can get. Thousands of South Africans have made the journey over the Indian Ocean and now call Perth home, and certainly make their presence felt whenever the Boks play there.

A win in this test will set up a renewal of the greatest rivalry in rugby, as the Boks travel on to New Zealand. It’ll be just a year after the humiliation in Durban, and will show that Bok resilience is proving to be a lot stronger than many would’ve thought.

The story lines behind this one are what is making this the biggest test of the year. The Wallabies last loss was a bitter pill to swallow, but what’s been happening with the breakaway rumours would’ve probably helped them forget about that a little quicker at least.

The redemption of South African rugby can take a giant leap over the weekend. Even though they’ve won five on the trot so far in 2017, there are still question marks over just how far they’ve come.

One nation’s pride versus one nation’s unity. That’s what is on the line in Perth.