2LT National News

Cape Town – The Springboks made it back-to-back victories with a hard-fought win over the Wallabies in their Rugby Championship clash at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth on Saturday.

As it happened: Springboks v Wallabies

Rassie Erasmus’ side won 23-12 after leading 20-12 at half-time.

Having shocked the All Blacks 36-34 in Wellington, New Zealand a fortnight ago, the Boks were looking for revenge against a Wallaby side they had lost 23-18 to in Brisbane three weeks ago.

And after the first quarter of the match a record score appeared likely as the home side raced into a 14-0 lead thanks to two converted tries by wing Aphiwe Dyantyi – after 27 seconds – and scrumhalf Faf de Klerk.

To their credit, however, the Wallabies same back strongly with two tries of their own before the half-time hooter – by centre Reece Hodge and No 9 Will Genia – and in fact ‘won’ the last 60 minutes of the match, 12-9.

As was the case in Wellington, the Boks were asked to make countless tackles as the visitors threw everything at their hosts.

Thankfully from a Bok point of view, the dam wall held firm and three Handre Pollard penalties, to go with his two first half conversions, saw the men in green and gold pick up four log points for their victory.

The Wallabies left empty-handed as they were left to rue a number of handling errors, often due to butter-fingers when in the Boks’ 22m-area.

In next Saturday’s final round of Rugby Championship matches, the Boks welcome the All Blacks to Loftus Versfeld (17:05), while the Wallabies head to Salta in Argentina to tackle the Pumas (00:40 on Sunday SA time).

The All Blacks have the opportunity of wrapping up the title with victory over Argentina in Buenos Aires in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Teams:

South Africa

15 Willie le Roux, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Andre Esterhuizen, 11 Aphiwe Dyantyi, 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Faf de Klerk, 8 Sikhumbuzo Notshe, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, Siya Kolisi (captain), 5 Franco Mostert, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Tendai Mtawarira

Substitutes: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Steven Kitshoff, 18 Wilco Louw, 19 RG Snyman, 20 Marco van Staden, 21 Embrose Papier, 22 Elton Jantjies, 23 Damian Willemse

Australia

15 Dane Haylett-Petty, 14 Israel Folau, 13 Reece Hodge, 12 Matt Toomua, 11 Marika Koroibete, 10 Kurtley Beale, 9 Will Genia, 8 David Pocock, 7 Michael Hooper (captain), 6 Ned Hanigan, 5 Izack Rodda, 4 Adam Coleman, 3 Taniela Tupou, 2 Folau Fainga’a, 1 Scott Sio

Substitutes: 16 Brandon Paenga-Amosa, 17 Sekope Kepu, 18 Allan Alaalatoa, 19 Rory Arnold, 20 Rob Simmons, 21 Nick Phipps, 22 Bernard Foley, 23 Jack Maddocks