Tri-Nations series: South African winger Breyton Paulse was suspended for three weeks yesterday after being found guilty of kicking Australia prop Al Baxter. Paulse admitted kicking Baxter in the final few minutes of Saturday's match in Perth, but denied trying to intentionally hurt him. Paulse said he instinctively lashed out at Baxter after being illegally held by the Australian. The South African's boot struck Baxter just below his left eye. Paulse was banned until September 11th, ruling him out of next week's Tri-Nations clash with New Zealand in Dunedin.
The incident was missed by the referee and linesmen, and was referred to the judicial committee by an independent citing commissioner, who watched a video replay of the match.
South Africa secured their first away win in the Tri-Nations since 1998 with this victory over Australia. Wing Bryan Habana scored two breakaway tries, one in either half, to condemn the Wallabies to their fourth straight defeat - their worst sequence of losses since 1982. The Springboks top the standings on 12 points.
Australia were disrupted just before kick-off when outhalf Elton Flatley had to withdraw with blurred vision in his left eye, a result of a warm-up accident.
Matt Giteau moved from inside centre with Morgan Turinui moving to inside centre and Clyde Rathbone taking over at outside centre.
Australia somehow failed to score a try in the opening 40 minutes and titleholders South Africa went into the break 14-6 up despite the Wallabies enjoying 70 per cent of the possession. The Springboks also played 10 minutes of the period with 14 men after Paulse was sent to the sinbin for a deliberate foul.
The visitors opened the scoring in the third minute when Habana scorched 80 metres for a try after a turnover inside his 22-metre area. The ball was collected by flanker Schalk Burger, who released centre Jaque Fourie to pass to Habana, who scored his 11th try in his 11th Test. Springbok fullback Percy Montgomery only landed three out of eight kicks at goal but Giteau and Mat Rogers put over five out of six kicks between them for the home team.
Former South African under-21 captain Rathbone scored the home team's only try in the 51st minute, which Rogers converted to pull Australia to within a point of the lead. Rogers landed his third penalty 11 minutes later to put Australia ahead for the first time, but Habana had the last say. From a turnover 10 metres from his goal line, Montgomery fed the ball wide and Habana used his pace to score try number 12.
AUSTRALIA: D Mitchell; M Rogers, C Rathbone, M Turinui, L Tuqiri; M Giteau, G Gregan; B Young, B Cannon, A Baxter, D Vickerman, N Sharpe, R Elsom, P Waugh, D Lyons. Replacements: J Roe for Elsom, M Dunning for Young (both 55 mins), A Ashley-Cooper for Rathbone (78 mins).
SOUTH AFRICA: P Montgomery; B Paulse, J Fourie, J de Villiers, B Habana; A Pretorius, R Januarie; Os du Randt, J Smit, CJ van der Linde, B Botha, V Matfield, S Burger, J Smith, J van Niekerk. Replacements: Alvert van den Berg for Botha (6 mins), Fourie du Preez for Januarie (52 mins), G Steenkamp for du Randt (55 mins), J van der Westhuysen for Pretorius (60 mins).
Referee: Alain Rolland (Ireland)
