Preview Australia v SA

Everything about this match suggests SA should win. They broke their NZ hoodoo, their Carrisbrook hoodoo, the ABs home winning streak and so on, and are full of confidence.

They're playing against a side that is lacking experience of playing at the highest level (the matches against Ireland and in particular junior-France don't really count) and although Robbie Deans is a tactical genius, it will take time for Australia to adjust to playing the game his way. Has he had enough time? Will they remember what to do under pressure as well as the Crusaders (who had donkey's years of it after all)?

Additionally in terms of world scrums, AB, SA and England would be the perennial "big guns." France, on occasion Wales fight right up there too, but you're really looking at countries like Romania, Georgia etc. being ahead of Australia in the tight. Australia make up for it in general fitness and their backs, plus their loose forwards do a lot better a job of getting the ball. In line outs Australia have been right up there with SA for a while, but are they still there? Mind you, the same could be asked of SA - although their line out was solid and they did steal some AB ball, it wasn't as one sided as expected by the pundits.

And, of course, we have Gatland's and Edwards' heroics with Wales this February and March. They took a team and in very little time produced grand slam winners. They may have been helped by England self-destructing in their first match, but they still produced a team that was strong enough and canny enough to take advantage of that and come out on top. Who is the better coach? You'd probably have to go with Deans in my estimation, although it's hard to judge from the outside.

The AB fan in me hopes that Australia wins by 8 or more points whilst not scoring 4 tries, but I can't quite see that. If Australia win, it will be tight, a point or two. More likely SA win, probably not with 4 tries, but probably by 10 -15 points.