BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — World Cup champions South Africa stormed to an early 14-0 lead on Saturday to beat Australia 33-7 in the Rugby Championship opener for both teams, delivering a harsh reality check to the previously unbeaten Wallabies.
In front of more than 50,000 fans at Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium, South Africa took a 7-0 lead after 10 minutes when captain Siya Kolisi scored a try from a rolling maul across the tryline.
Despite some solid defence from the Wallabies, Pieter-Steph du Toit found an opportunity to score a second try and put South Africa ahead 14-0.
The Springboks scored one more try to lead 21-0 by half-time but the home side could not recover, despite optimistic comments from Wallabies assistant coach Rory Fisher at half-time.
“We have a really strong offense coming up,” Fisher said, “so we just got to pick ourselves up and come out in the second half and take every moment we can.”
But that wasn't to happen. The Springboks scored their fourth try of the night 13 minutes from time to take a 28-0 lead, then added a fifth on the ensuing kick-off. The Wallabies finally scored four minutes from time.
It was the Springboks' first win against Australia in Brisbane in 2013. The Wallabies will have a chance to bounce back from that heavy defeat when they face South Africa again next Saturday in Perth, Western Australia, in the second Rugby Championship match for both teams.
“They're an incredibly strong, experienced team and they won a physical battle today. Their breakdown was really strong, they dominated possession and territory in the first half and that took a bit of energy out of the players,” Australia coach Joe Schmidt said.
“It would have been nice to have a few more matches under our belts, but we have a standard and it wasn't a big shock to us where the Springboks are. We just need to build towards that.”
The Springboks beat Ireland 27-20 in their first game of the season but lost 25-24 in their second, before beating Portugal 64-21 at the end of July.
Australia opened the new season with two wins over Wales and one over Georgia as the Wallabies look to bounce back from their worst ever performance at last year's World Cup in France, failing to get out of the group stage for the first time.
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