MONDAY MAUL

RECENT Wallabies squads have earned a reputation for losing the plot whenever they arrive on South African soil.

Players have been caught up in off-field bother, and some have been sent home, fined or reprimanded for nightclub incidents. The Wallabies have been a regular presence on the front pages of South African newspapers, a result of everything from team rifts to revelations in 2005 that they were involved in a team game at a Cape Town restaurant during which players admitted they wouldn't mind eating each other.

They have also attempted to overcome the jetlag and altitude factor in loony-tunes fashion, once even wearing dark sunglasses on the flight over. Considering how poorly they played, the shades must actually have been eye patches which they forgot to take off on arrival.

Maybe that's why, since the Springboks were welcomed back into the fold in 1992, the Wallabies have won only two of their 15 matches in South Africa, with their most recent triumph eight years ago.

But at last a bit of common sense has been adopted by a travelling Wallabies squad.

Before heading to Johannesburg last Friday, the players stressed they would be treating the flight like any other, and when they arrived there, would immediately confront the beast - by heading straight to Newlands to take in the Springboks-All Blacks Test.

As usual, there were travel hiccups, with a four-hour delay in Sydney meaning the Wallabies missed their connecting flight to Cape Town and prompting an overnight stay in Johannesburg.

However, they were in Cape Town in time for half the playing group and the full coaching contingent to get to the ground for a different perspective of the South African hoodoo.

Ask any Wallaby why they falter in South Africa and they will admit it is sheer weight of numbers. The team must confront not just the 22 Springboks on the field, but the thousands in the terraces. Everyone seems to be against them. South African grounds are intimidating. They are the best stadia because the stands are built so close to the playing field and the crowd is right on top of the players. That's fine if you're the home team, but frightening if you're a visitor. So often, the South African spectators have succeeded in spooking the uninitiated.

Even the initiated, such as former Springboks under-21 captain Clyde Rathbone, have discovered the pitfalls. In 2004, when Rathbone returned to his home town of Durban in Wallabies colours, he was singled out for abuse by the South African press and community. Not surprisingly, Rathbone had a poor Test. Even the drive to a South African Test ground on match day can be demoralising. Any visiting player who isn't affected by the trip from Sandton to Ellis Park in Johannesburg, which winds through some of the poorer areas of this edgy city and culminates with hundreds of Springboks supporters screaming and banging on the team bus as it enters the arena, isn't human.

Yet often the Wallabies' approach has not helped matters - by hiding themselves in their hotel rooms, the self-doubts and paranoia have just intensified. But this time, to their credit, the Wallabies confronted it, and sat among the Newlands masses to discover - admittedly via an exceptional All Blacks performance - that the Springboks are not monsters, but have foibles like the rest of us. New Zealand showed that if you stand up to the Springboks and their crowd, miracles can happen - even to the extent of embarrassing the locals by keeping them scoreless.

The Wallabies would also have witnessed, from the other side of the fence, that the Springboks fan has a sense of humour, and that most of them appreciate excellence from both sides. Some even barrack for the opposition.

This discovery could easily prompt a turnaround in fortunes for the Wallabies in the Republic.