A clinic from South Africa in Brisbane, securing their first win there in over a decade with a blend of their power upfront and new emphasis on cutting teams open out wide. Joe Schmidt’s honeymoon as Australia head coach is certainly over ahead of the rematch in Perth next weekend. The Springboks suffocated Australia early on through their kicking game and by the time Kwagga Smith and Kurt-Lee Arendse crossed within two minutes in the second half, the question was whether it would be a historic thrashing.
In the end South Africa fell short of their record win (53-8 in 2008) and Australia avoided being nilled by South Africa for the first time since 1956, but make no mistake, the gulf in class felt enormous. 07:43 AM BST FULL-TIME: Australia 7-33 South Africa South Africa win in Brisbane for the first time since 2013. The damage was done in the first half really, Australia looked bereft of confidence.
Excellent physicality and threat out wide from the Springboks before they took their foot off the gas, the one-two punch of those Kwagga Smith and Kurt-Lee Arendse tries in the second half finished the game off. Nice flourishes from Feinberg-Mngomezulu and Louw on their first starts. Heaps for Australia to work on.
Just mountains of improvements. 07:40 AM BST 80 mins - Australia 7-33 South Africa Wallabies overplay again and get pinged at the breakdown. Not sure why they attacked down the blindside there given they have a two-player advantage and didn’t go for the space.
That.