Kurt-Lee Arendse scored a hat‑trick as a South Africa side missing several regulars made it an unhappy return for the Australia coach, Eddie Jones, as the Springboks eased to a comfortable Rugby Championship win.
The Boks were also awarded two penalty tries and got another from the flanker Pieter-Steph du Toit in a bonus-point victory. They dominated the aerial battle and had too much muscle and speed for the visitors, who have lost all seven of their visits to Pretoria.
There will be few positives for Jones in his first match in charge of the Wallabies since 2005, though they scored an early try through the wing Marika Koroibete and a late one via the debutant Carter Gordon, and enjoyed lineout success on both teams’ throws.
South Africa sent a number of players to New Zealand last week for their second fixture in Auckland on Saturday, handing a debut to the lock Jean Kleyn. They were far from perfect, but still did more than enough for the comfortable win.
“I’m really proud of the boys, it was a fantastic performance,” the South Africa captain, Duane Vermeulen, said. “We played to our strengths. We can still improve, it was not 100% our best performance, but I’m very happy with the result.”
The visitors received two yellow cards in the second half, for the hooker Dave Porecki and the wing Suliasi Vunivalu, a symptom of the pressure they were put under by their hosts.
It led to numerous unforced handling errors from Australia, who gave a debut to the flanker Tom Hooper, while the prop Zane Nonggorr, the lock Richie Arnold and the fly-half Gordon came off the bench to earn their first Test caps.
“There was an opportunity to put in a performance we are proud of, but we just defended the whole of the second half, they put us under so much pressure. We will learn from that,” the Australia co-captain James Slipper said.
“It is a tough start, but we have a long year ahead of us. There is plenty more to come. We didn’t deal with the pressure, and the lack of discipline put us on the back foot.”
Arendse’s clinical finishing was a key factor as he took his tally of tries to 10 in seven Tests.
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After Koroibete’s early score Arendse crossed unopposed for his first try as the visitors ran out of defenders from a backline break. Australia’s defence around the fringes left a lot to be desired and the hosts exploited it to score their second try.
The scrum-half Cobus Reinach sniped around the blindside from a lineout and some lightning-quick hands released Arendse as the Boks led 17-5 at half-time.
Arendse completed his hat-trick 11 minutes into the second half as the Boks camped in Wallabies territory, dancing down the left wing and evading two tackles before dotting down.
South Africa remained on top for the remainder of the game, with Australia barely managing to enter their half before Gordon ran clear late on.
