It has been a nightmare begin for Eddie Jones with the Wallabies humiliated of their first Rugby Championship check for the reason that veteran coach’s return.
Australia was thumped 43-12 in Pretoria — and it got here in opposition to a second string Springboks crew.
Jones labelled the South Africa facet “half baked” earlier than the match as a result of they despatched lots of their stars to New Zealand forward of the sport to acclimatise for a July 15 conflict with the All Blacks.
But reverse quantity Jacques Nienaber had the final chortle having predicted through the week that his weakened facet could be ok to begin the season with a victory.
Winger Kurt-Lee Arendse scored a hat-trick of tries because the Springboks cruised to a bonus-point triumph after recovering from conceding an early attempt to lead 17-5 at half-time.
“This has been a disaster for Eddie Jones in his first Test match in charge,” declared two-time World Cup winner Tim Horan late within the match in commentary for Stan Sport.
Prop James Slipper, who shared the captaincy with flanker Michael Hooper in a primary for the Wallabies, supplied no excuses after their second heaviest loss in Pretoria.
“We just defended in the second half and you have got to give credit to the Springboks, who put us under constant pressure.” “It is hard to take such a heavy defeat, but we will learn a lot from it,” vowed the veteran ahead.
“While it is a tough start to the international season, we have a long road ahead of us and will keep working hard.
“We wanted to play the Australian way tonight, but I have to admit that we did not deal very well with the pressure applied by the Springboks.
“A lack of discipline put us on the back foot in the second half,” he mentioned, referring to yellow playing cards for David Porecki and Suliasi Vunivalu after they conceded penalty tries.
The Wallabies are desperately on the lookout for solutions after dropping 9 of their 13 Tests final yr.
South Africa captain and No. 8 Duane Vermeulen, standing in as skipper for injured Siya Kolisi, hailed the “tremendous” 50,000 Loftus Versfeld crowd after the unexpectedly convincing victory for the Rugby World Cup title-holders.
“I am really proud of the boys,” mentioned the 37-year-old back-row ahead, who says he’ll retire after South Africa defend their world title in France later this yr.
“The boys were inspired by an absolutely tremendous crowd,” he mentioned as South Africa maintained an ideal report in opposition to Australia on the Pretoria floor with an eighth victory since 1963.
“We had our plans coming into the game, but did not know what to expect from Australia,” he admitted.
“I felt (Australia coach) Eddie (Jones) might have one or two things up his sleeve, but we adapted well, played to our strengths and I am really happy with the performance.
“We can still improve, our performance was a bit below 100 per cent, but it is hard to complain when you start the season with a 31-point victory.”
South Africa are away to title-holders New Zealand subsequent Saturday whereas Australia host Argentina later the identical day.
The Rugby Championship has been lowered from the standard six matchdays to a few this season due to the World Cup, which kicks off in Paris on September 8.
— with AFP
Source: www.news.com.au
