Springboks suffer third straight loss to Wallabies

The Wallabies condemned South Africa to a third straight Tri-Nations defeat with a convincing 30-13 win here on Saturday.

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 profligate 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 had only 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.

“We created some opportunities that we didn’t finish and that’s always frustrating,” Wallabies’ coach Robbie Deans said.

“You don’t get many chances in Tri-Nations’ rugby but the boys created a few and that was good, we didn’t profit as much as we would have liked, but they kept at it.”

The key difference between the sides was man-of-the-match flanker David Pocock foraging in the breakdowns and in the goalkicking, with Matt Giteau landing five penalties and James O’Connor a penalty and a conversion.

Australia are now unbeaten against South Africa in seven Tests at Lang Park — the Springboks last won in Brisbane 39 years ago at the Exhibition Ground across town.

“We are very aware of what we have to do over the next three or four weeks before we get our next chance to rectify things,” Springbok skipper Jon Smit said.

“Our defence and breakdowns have been poor and our attack has been ordinary so we have a helluva lot to work on and it is going to have to come from us if we are going to change things around.”

Irish referee George Clancy pulled out the yellow card three times, sinbinning Springboks Jaque Fourie and BJ 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 the lead.

The Springboks once again fell foul of the referee, with centre Fourie receiving a yellow card in only the second minute for a dangerous tackle on Richard Brown.

The world champions had three players yellow-carded in their opening two Tri-Nation Test defeats to New Zealand earlier this month.

There was more disciplinary woe for South Africa as Victor Matfield and Bryan Habana conceded penalties, which Giteau kicked, while fly-half Morne Steyn landed his team’s only first-half points in the 18th minute.

The Australians finally scored a try right on half-time, when Mitchell juggled Giteau’s pass three times before scoring his 20th Test try.

The Wallabies, enjoying plenty of possession in the opening half, found holes in the Springbok defence with skipper Elsom particularly dangerous with two line breaks.

Australia continued to rip through the South African defence 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.

Wallaby Cooper became the third player to receive a yellow card in the match for his dangerous lifting tackle on opposing fly-half Steyn midway through the half.

The South Africans refused to give in and Fourie scored after a Smit pass in the 62nd minute to trail 23-8.

BRISBANE, Australia, July 24, 2010 (AFP)