World Cup champions South Africa yesterday gave the Wallabies a harsh reality check, leading 14-0 early and beating Australia 33-7 in the opening Rugby Championship match.
South Africa led 7-0 in the 10th minute when captain Siya Kolisi crashed over the try line from a rolling maul to give the visitors the lead before a capacity crowd of more than 50,000 at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.
“We said as a group this is a big game for us to win, I am proud of the boys,” Kolisi said. “We stuck to what we planned in the week, we are a learning team.”
Photo: EPA-EFE
Despite sustained strong defensive play by the Wallabies, South Africa went ahead 14-0 when Pieter-Steph du Toit found an opening to surge through for the second try.
Another try gave the Springboks a 21-0 lead at halftime and the home side never recovered — despite Wallabies assistant coach Laurie Fisher’s optimistic comments at halftime.
“That’s a lot of heavy artillery coming at you,” Fisher said. “So we’ve just got to dust ourselves off, get out in the second half and just win it moment by moment.”
That never happened.
The Springboks went ahead 28-0 with 13 minutes left after their fourth try of the night then added a fifth on the ensuing kick-off.
The Wallabies got on the scoreboard with four minutes remaining.
It was the Springboks’ first win over Australia in Brisbane since 2013.
Later, in Wellington, Argentina stunned New Zealand with a 38-30 win as they outscored the All Blacks four tries to three in a setback to the hosts’ defense of their title.
It was only the third win for the Pumas over New Zealand in 38 meetings as the adventurous spirit of the visitors prevailed against an error-prone All Blacks side.
The lead changed several times before Argentina prevailed.
Argentina’s tries came from Lucio Cinti, Mateo Carreras, Franco Molina and Agustin Creevy.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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