South Africa vs Australia LIVE: Rugby Championship result and reaction as Springboks thrash Wallabies
Australia seek a first win at Loftus Versfeld as Eddie Jones begins his second stint in charge of the Wallabies
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South Africa put Australia to the sword as Eddie Jones’s second stint in charge of the Wallabies got off to a disastrous start.
Kurt-Lee Arendse’s hat-trick powered the Springboks to a seven-try 43-12 victory in Pretoria as the hosts flexed their strength.
Jacques Nienaber had named a side short of several regular first-choice stars for the Rugby Championship opener, but it mattered not as Australia were blown away.
Showing early attacking ambition and then taking full control with their power game, South Africa produced a statement performance in their first fixture of this World Cup year.
Australia twice had players sent to the sin bin after conceding penalty tries, Dave Porecki shown a yellow card after hauling down a ball before Suliasi Vunivalu’s deliberate knock on denied Arendse a walk-in fourth score.
It leaves Jones with plenty of thinking to do as Australia prepare to host Argentina in Sydney next weekend.
Argentina welcome New Zealand to Mendoza later on Saturday in round one’s other fixture.
Follow all the live updates from the Rugby Championship below:
FT: South Africa 43-12 Australia
A proper Pretoria pummelling from South Africa, utterly dominant for 60 minutes to give Eddie Jones a disastrous start to his second stint in charge of the Wallabies. Australia simply had no answer for much of a one-sided contest that really could have ended up even uglier for the visitors.
Too many standouts to list for the Springboks, really, but Marco van Staden, Andre Esterhuizen and Manie Libbok will certainly have done their hopes of heavy World Cup involvement no harm. South Africa mean business.
FT: South Africa 43-12 Australia
New start, same problems for Eddie Jones, his side utterly out-muscled and out-played by South Africa for a second game in succession. This performance was even worse than the one that ended his tenure at Twickenham. Time is tight to turn things around before the World Cup but it’s hard to pick any positives out of that - having scored first through Marika Koroibete, it was almost complete capitulation from Australia.
FT: South Africa 43-12 Australia
The frightening thing for Australia will be that it was far from a full-strength South Africa side. Several of Eddie Jones’s gambles failed to fire - Suliasi Vunivalu was tortured by Kurt-Lee Arendse, Reece Hodge was inaccurate with the boot and quiet otherwise, and Tom Hooper endured a horror half-hour before his evening was ended early with injury. That’s as subdued as I’ve seen Will Skelton for a long while, too. Work to be done.
FT: South Africa 43-12 Australia
The Springboks now head for Auckland to meet up with some of their advanced party ahead of a round two encounter with the All Blacks. Will they continue with the same attacking ambition they showed in the first half today? They’ve got the horses to continue to play a wider game but New Zealand are unlikely to be so rough around the edges.
Australia’s second fixture is in Sydney against Argentina.
Australia co-captain James Slipper reacts after thrashing
“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,” Slipper says.
“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.”
On to Argentina vs New Zealand...
Right, that just about does us for the early wrap on South Africa’s tonking of Australia. We’ll have plenty more reaction over the coming days.
But we’ve more Rugby Championship business to attend to this evening - New Zealand are in Malbec country, with Argentina eyeing another statement victory.
Argentina vs New Zealand
What of the Pumas, then? 2022 was a successful year for Argentina, Michael Cheika’s appointment paying immediate dividends with historic wins in New Zealand and at Twickenham. With a friendly World Cup draw to come in the autumn, Cheika will have genuine hopes his side can yet repeat the achievements of the 2015 vintage, with a semi-final berth eminently achievable for a side with plenty of good qualities.
First, though, comes this curtailed campaign, with trips to Sydney and Johannesburg following this sole home fixture. Can they secure a third win against the All Blacks in this cycle?
South Africa demolish Australia to hand Eddie Jones unhappy start in Rugby Championship
Wing Kurt-Lee Arendse scored a hattrick of tries as a South Africa side missing several regulars made it an unhappy return for Australia coach Eddie Jones as the Springboks eased to a 43-12 Rugby Championship win at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday.
The Boks were also awarded two penalty tries and got another from flanker Pieter-Steph du Toit in the bonus-point victory as they dominated the aerial battle and had too much muscle and speed for the visitors, who have now lost all seven of their visits to Pretoria.
There will be few positives for Jones in his first match back in charge of the Wallabies since 2005, though they scored an early try through wing Marika Koroibete and a late one via debutant Carter Gordon, and enjoyed line-out success on both teams’ throws.
South Africa sent a number of players to New Zealand this week ahead of their second fixture in Auckland next Saturday, handing a debut to 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,” Bok captain Duane Vermeulen said at the post-match presentation. “We played to our strengths. We can still improve, it was not 100 percent our best performance, but I’m very happy with the result.”
The visitors received two yellow cards in the second half, for hooker Dave Porecki and wing Suliasi Vunivalu, a symptom of the pressure they were put under by their hosts.
Reuters
South Africa demolish Australia in Rugby Championship
South Africa 43-12 Australia: A rampant showing from the Springboks in the Championship opener
Argentina vs New Zealand
Still a little while yet before we get going in Mendoza, but there’s news of a late change to bring you, so let’s check in on the two 23s...
Team News - Argentina
Michael Cheika’s first Argentina side of the year is captained by hooker Julian Montoya, who is joined in the front row by Lucio Sordoni, back amongst things for the first time internationally in nearly three years after a long injury lay-off. Marcos Kremer’s suspension affords Rodrigo Bruni an opportunity in the back row while Lucio Cinti is an eye-catching starter at inside centre, the former sevens player more often a wing so far in his young test career but providing plenty of threat in a backline full of strike runners.
That backline had been due to include Bautista Delguy, but the wing is a late scratch; Sebastián Cancelliere steps in after an excellent season with Glasgow.
Argentina XV: Thomas Gallo, Julian Montoya (capt.), Lucio Sordoni; Matias Alemanno, Tomas Lavanini; Pablo Matera, Juan Martin Gonzalez, Rodrigo Bruni; Gonzalo Bertranou, Santiago Carreras; Mateo Carreras, Lucio Cinti, Matias Moroni, Sebastián Cancelliere; Emiliano Boffelli.
Replacements: Agustin Creevy, Mayco Vicas, Eduardo Bello, Pedro Rubiolo, Santiago Grondona; Lautaro Bazan Velez, Nicolas Sanchez, Matias Orlando.
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