Ill-discipline undoes South Africa yet again as they go down to a third away loss in this year’s Tri-Nations. Jaque Fourie was binned for another foolish tackle that saw a player upended, From this Australia through Matt Giteau kicked four of his five penalties followed by a Drew Mitchell juggling try putting the Wallabies into half-time at 17-3 up.
In the second period Australia threatened to run clear but Quade Cooper then got binned and the Boks clawed their way back into the game, however they again went down to 14 men when BJ Botha got sin-binned as he fell into the ruck as Australia threatened the line. The Boks showed spirit and mounted a final-quarter fightback with tries from Fourie and Gurthro Steenkamp however crucially they were not converted and to cap it all Will Genia scored a cheeky late try to give us the final score of:
Australia 30-13 South Africa
Scorers
Australia
Tries: Mitchell, Genia Con: O’Connor Pens: Giteau (5), O’Connor
South Africa
Tries: Fourie, Steenkamp Pen: Steyn
Teams
Australia: Ashley-Cooper, O’Connor, Horne, Giteau, Mitchell, Cooper, Genia, Robinson, Faingaa, Ma’afu, Mumm, Sharpe, Elsom, Pocock, Brown.
Replacements: Moore (for Faingaa, 55), Slipper (for Robinson, 58), Simmons, McCalman, Burgess, Barnes (for Giteau, 72), Beale
Sin-bin: Cooper (54)
South Africa: Kirchner, Aplon, Fourie, Olivier, Habana, Steyn, Pienaar; Steenkamp, Smit (captain), Botha, Rossouw, Matfield, Burger, Kankowski, Spies.
Replacements: Ralepelle (for Smit, 73), Van der Linde, Van der Merwe, Potgieter, Hougaard (for Pienaar, 73), James (for Steyn, 54), De Jongh (for Olivier, 54).
Sin-bin: Fourie (3), BJ Botha (46)
Attendance: 44,284
Next week Australia host New Zealand in Melbourne on Sat 31 July 10:30 GST Live on SkySports 2