Kurt-Lee Arendse continued his fine run of form after scoring a hat-trick of tries as the Springboks hammered Australia 43-12 in their Rugby Championship opener at Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Saturday.
The result kept the Springboks’ record against the Wallabies at Loftus Versfeld at 8-0, as they led 17-5 at halftime. This was their eighth straight win.
Marika Koroibete and Carter Gordon both scored tries for Australia. However, South Africa came back quickly in the first half and won the second.
After halftime, David Porecki and Suliasi Vunivalu both gave away penalty tries and were sent to the sin bin. This cost the Wallabies a lot.
Eddie Jones had a terrible start to his second time as coach of Australia, which lost nine of its 13 international games.
He called the South Africa team “half-baked” before the game because many of their best players went to New Zealand before the game to get used to the weather in preparation for a match with the All Blacks on July 15.
But Jacques Nienaber, the other player, had the last laugh. He had said earlier in the week that his weaker team would be good enough to win the first game of the season.
But neither Nienaber, the 50,089 people who were there, nor the thousands who watched on TV would have thought that the winner could be so far ahead.
On a cold winter night, Australia scored first. Koroibete beat Andre Esterhuizen and scored in the corner after a pass set up the play. Reece Hodge did not change his mind.
Manie Libbok’s first penalty kick from his half just missed the goal, but his second try from closer to the goal posts worked, and South Africa got on the scoreboard.
Arendse’s first try put the Springboks ahead after 16 minutes. Pressure on the Wallabies pushed them back, and when the ball went wide, the winger just had to dot down.
After Libbok’s conversion, the world champions turned a five-point deficit into a five-point lead in just eight minutes.
Before Arendse scored again at the field where he plays club rugby for the Bulls, Hodge missed a long-range penalty kick.
He ran down the blind side to score, and Libbok’s high kick between the posts gave them a 17-5 lead that they kept until halftime.
After the hooter for the end of the first half, Australia had a chance to close the gap, but Hodge’s shot from 66 metres out missed the goal.
In the second half, Australia didn’t get back on track. Instead, South Africa took charge, and Arendse scored his third goal after getting past three defenders.
Then South Africa scored two penalty tries, making the score 36–5 with a quarter of the game still to go.
Pieter-Steph du Toit pushed over for another Springbok try, which was converted by Libbok. Then, late in the game, a replacement player named Gordon scored a consolation try, which Libbok converted.
Later on Saturday, Argentina will host the defending champions, New Zealand, in Mendoza. This is part of the first round.
Photo by Gavin Barker/BackpagePix
