Rugby Championship: Australia 12 South Africa 30
World champions South Africa maintained their perfect start to the Rugby Championship when they ground out a 30-12 win over Australia in a scrappy contest at a rain-drenched Perth Stadium on Saturday.
Fullback Aphelele Fassi and flanker Marco van Staden both scored tries and hooker Malcolm Marx crossed twice in the second half as a much-changed Springboks side backed up their far more convincing victory over the Wallabies last Saturday.
Australia fared better in the physical contest than they had in Brisbane a week ago but rarely threatened the South Africa try line and had to settle for four penalties from the boot of outhalf Noah Lolesio.
“It’s been an amazing two weeks coming down here and getting two victories, that doesn’t happen a lot,” said Springboks lock Eben Etzebeth, who came on to win his 124th cap after skipper Salmaan Moerat was injured in the first half.
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“The Wallabies are a quality outfit and I think the guys really played well tonight, and last week of course.”
Australia were clearly looking to make a good start after being blown off the park early in last week's 33-7 loss and Lolesio got them on the board with his first penalty in the third minute.
The torrential rain made handling difficult and Springboks outhalf Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu and winger Makazole Mapimpi both blew cast-iron try-scoring opportunities by fumbling the greasy ball in the early exchanges.
It was Australia's turn to spill the ball at the breakdown in the 17th minute and the visitors pounced to score the opening try of the game on the counter-attack.
Quick hands got the ball out to Mapimpi on the left flank and the winger's grubber gave Fassi a straight race against Australia's Andrew Kellaway to the line, the South African winning comfortably to touch down.
The errors continued as Lolesio and Feinberg-Mngomezulu exchanged penalties. The Australian added his third but missed a fourth to leave the Springboks 11-9 ahead at halftime.
Van Staden went over the line from a rolling maul three minutes after the restart but Lolesio's fourth successful penalty cut the lead back to 18-12 after 47 minutes.
After a few botched efforts, Australia finally got a crosskick right in the 57th minute and teenager Max Jorgensen, making his debut as replacement winger, showed his pace as he carried the ball 40 metres before his chip ahead was blocked.
It was a false dawn, however, and South Africa got the next score, rolling replacement hooker Marx over the line on the back of a maul in the 64th minute.
Australia were reduced to 14 men for the final eight minutes after a second debutant, replacement flanker Sere Uru, was yellow carded and Marx almost immediately scored his second try from another catch-and-drive.
“They turned up, they played some good footy,” said Australia number eight Harry Wilson.
“Guess they won the big moments tonight and I felt we weren't far off. But yeah, we've got to win those big moments.”
South Africa will next face the All Blacks in back-to-back matches at home, while Australia travel to Argentina for their next two contests in the southern hemisphere test championship.
