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Australia brought their rugby championship campaign to life with a 30-17 bonus point victory over South Africa to pierce the aura of the world champions for the second time in a week.
After upsetting the Springboks 28-26 on the Gold Coast last Sunday with a Quade Cooper penalty after the siren, the Wallabies running game shone in the twilight of Lang Park as center Len Ikitau and winger Marika Koroibete each scored two tries.
Koroibete’s runner-up gave the Australians a 13-point lead with 12 minutes remaining and they defended brilliantly to win two turnovers in front of their posts to protect the lead to the finish.
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South Africa had one try, thanks to center Lukhanyo Am shortly after halftime, but pulled two yellow cards in a flat performance before heading to back-to-back testing against New Zealand.
“We’ve talked a lot about doing back to back here,” said Australia captain Michael Hooper. “We love playing here in front of a crowd… We couldn’t be happier right now.” Coach Dave Rennie added, “I’m really proud of our guys because we wanted to support last week’s performance with another good one. Lots of courage tonight and quite clinical when it counted.
Australia move up to third in the world rankings ahead of two tests against Argentina, and South Africa lost their place to world No.1 after New Zealand beat the Pumas 36-13 in the Saturday’s late doubles match.
Springboks coach Jacques Nienaber apologized to fans and said it was his team’s worst performance since they were shocked 32-19 by Argentina in Mendoza in 2018. “We really have it. been beaten. We were handily beaten in everything – the defense, the kicks, the attack, ”he told reporters. “It wasn’t a performance that was worthy enough of a Springbok performance.”
In a choppy start to the game, South African scrum-half Faf de Klerk was shown a yellow card for slowing the ball in a 13th-minute ruck and Ikitau was quick to capitalize with the first try from Australia a minute later. Nic White threw a pass to a charging Ikitau, who beat two defenders in a 10-yard burst to the line.
Barnstorming mainstay Taniela Tupou then crashed into the South African line, clearing the way for a Koroibete offload which set up Ikitau’s second try in the right corner seven minutes later.
De Klerk’s return after his 10 minutes in the Sin-bin rejuvenated the South Africans as his precise kicks put pressure on the hosts. Wallabies full-back Tom Banks came out squeezing his forearm in the 28th minute and flanker Lachie Swinton was yellow carded seven minutes before halftime after a high tackle on No.8 Duane Vermeulen. Pollard was then given a fourth penalty after Australia was taken offside to reduce the lead to 15-12 at the break.
With Swinton still not on the pitch, a kick from De Klerk to the right corner allowed Am to touch the ground and take the lead within two minutes of the restart.
Cooper gave Australia the lead with his second penalty before Koroibete took control of the game with a flurry of two tries in six minutes. Taking a daring pass from Tupou, Koroibete hit the left wing for the first of his tries in the 62nd minute.
A turnaround from Reece Hodge followed by a transfer from Samu Kerevi to Pete Samu resulted in a brilliant counterattack attempt against Koroibete on the same left wing. Cooper missed the second conversion, but Australia defended solidly to protect the 13-point lead, pushing back waves of attacks in their 22 to complete a confidence victory.
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