The Wallabies condemned South Africa to a third straight Tri-Nations defeat with a convincing 30-13 win in Brisbane yesterday.
The world champions’ hopes of retaining the southern hemisphere championship suffered another heavy blow as they were outplayed in a frenetic Test match punctuated by three yellow cards.
Australia’s winning margin would have been greater but for haphazard finishing which cost them the chance of landing a four-try bonus point to keep in touch with series leaders New Zealand, who they face in Melbourne next week.
For all the Wallabies’ dominance, they only had tries from Drew Mitchell and Will Genia to show for their efforts, while the Springboks also crossed the line twice, their first tries in five matches at Lang Park.
The key difference between the sides was in goal-kicking, with Matt Giteau landing five penalties and James O’Connor a penalty and a conversion for Australia.
Irish referee George Clancy pulled out the yellow card three times, sin-binning Springboks Jaque Fourie and B.J. Botha and Wallaby Quade Cooper.
Australia’s finishing lacked composure at times, with breaks by Rocky Elsom and Genia going unrewarded, and the home side needed Giteau to kick them into a lead.
The Springboks once again fell foul of the referee, with center Fourie receiving a yellow card in only the second minute for a dangerous tackle on Richard Brown.
The world champions lost winger Jean de Villiers and lock Bakkies Botha to suspensions following their opening two defeats to New Zealand.
There was more disciplinary woe for South Africa as Victor Matfield and Bryan Habana conceded penalties, which Giteau kicked, while flyhalf Morne Steyn landed his team’s only first-half points in the 18th minute.
The Australians finally scored a try right on halftime, when Mitchell juggled Giteau’s pass three times before scoring.
The Wallabies, enjoying plenty of possession in the opening half, found holes in the South Africa defense, with skipper Elsom particularly dangerous.
Australia continued to rip through the South African defense after the break, but poor finishing let them down again and it took penalties from Giteau and O’Connor to pull them into a 23-3 lead.
Cooper became the third player to receive a yellow card in the match for his dangerous lifting tackle on opposing flyhalf Steyn midway through the half.
The South Africans refused to give in and Fourie scored after a John Smit pass in the 62nd minute to bring the scores to 23-8.
The Springboks scored their second try eight minutes from time when prop Gurthro Steenkamp ploughed over in a rolling maul of a lineout win, but scrumhalf Ruan Pienaar failed to convert.
The Wallabies wrapped it up with scrumhalf Genia scampering over five minutes from the end for a try converted by O’Connor.
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