For the first time South Africa a played what could be considered as its A team for three-quarters of the match at least but ended with a full complement of bench players to lose yet again. The ststa tell us that the South Africans had the better opportunities for getting primary possession - penalties, line-outs and scrums - 38-21.

Australia won 14-9.

Sanctions

Sanctionary Cards

There were no cards. There have been no cards in the 2011 Tri-Nations so far. It is a mystery how Rocky Elsom and Pat McCabe did not get cards of some sort for dangerous tackles of the tip type.

Cited and suspended

Nobody. It is a mystery to some how Rocky Elsom and Pat McCabe were not cited for dangerous tackles of the tip type. It seems that the citing chief for the match, Steve Hinds of New Zealand, did not think either tackle was worthy of a red card, which, it seems, has a measurable quantity.

Penalties conceded

In this section we record the times a team was penalised.

South Africa vs Australia

Total number of penalties: 18

South Africa: 6
Australia: 12

The reasons for the penalties were as follows:

* = points conceded

South Africa:
Tackle/ruck/maul: 2 (Habana, Pietersen*)
Scrum: 2 (Mtawarira*, Steenkamp*)
Discipline: (Brüssow - obstruction; Smit - obstruction)

Australia:
Tackle/ruck/maul: 10 (Horwill 4, Higginbotham, Moore*, Beale, Elsom*, Kepu)
Scrum: 1 (Kepu*)
Discipline: 1 (Elsom* - dangerous tackle)

Each side missed a penalty kick at goal.

Tackles/Penalties

This gives the number of penalties at ruck/tackle as a fraction of the total number of penalties: 12/18 - 66%

(In Round 1 it was 74%, in Round 2 56%, in Round 3 67%)

Getting possession - line-outs, scrums, free-kicks, drop-outs

In this section the figures represent the number of times you get to play with the ball.

South Africa:
Line-outs: 15 (2 lost)
Scrums: 11 (1  reset, 12 collapses, 1  penalty, 1 wheel)
Free-kicks: 1 (line-out)
Drop-outs: 3

Australia:
Line-outs: 7 (1 lost)
Scrums: 8 (3 reset, 5 collapses, 1 free kick, 2 penalties)
Free-kicks: 2 (1 mark, 1 scrum)
Drop-outs: 2

Stoppages (total of line-outs, scrums with resets, free kicks, penalties, drop-outs): 71

Stoppages in previous Tri-Nations matches

Australia vs South Africa: 65
New Zealand vs South Africa: 70
New Zealand vs Australia: 62

Ball in play

These stats are provided by Jan Taljaard.

South Africa vs Australia (Bryce Lawrence): 
16 minutes 41 seconds + 16 minutes 13 seconds = 32 minutes 54 seconds

Three Currie Cup matches were timed. The one with most ball in play was the one between Western Province and the Sharks, refereed by Lourens van der Merwe in unpleasant weather - 36 minutes 47 seconds. Jason Jaftha refereed the Golden Lions vs Free State Cheetahs and the ball was in play for 34 minutes 55 seconds. Andrew Lees of Australia refereed the match in Nelspruit between the Pumas and the Blue Bulls and the ball was in play for 28 minutes 41 seconds - eight minutes fewer than the match at Newlands, which is a lot.

Ball-in-play time for previous Tri-Nations matches

Australia vs South Africa (Pollock): 35 minutes 0 seconds
New Zealand vs South Africa (Rolland): 32 minutes 59 seconds
New Zealand vs Australia (Joubert):  36 minutes 6 seconds

Scoring

Tries

This is the number of tries each team scored.

South Africa: 0
Australia: 1 (McCabe)

Tries in previous Tri-Nations matches

Australia vs South Africa: 5 + 2 = 7
New Zealand vs South Africa: 6 + 1 = 7
New Zealand vs Australia: 3 + 2 = 5
South Africa vs Australia: 0 + 1 = 1

Tries/penalties scored

This gives the ratio of tries scored to penalties scored by each team:

South Africa: 0/3
Australia: 1/3

The ratio of tries scored to penalties goaled is 1/6