Champions South Africa end campaign by crushing Aussies
Saturday, 30 Aug 2008 16:07
South Africa end their campaign bottom of the table despite today's impressive win.
World champions South Africa ended their Tri-Nations campaign with a 53-8 win over Australia in Johannesburg.
Jongi Nokwe scored four tries for the Springboks to ease the pressure on coach Peter de Villiers, who had seen his side lose four of their last five games.
Andries Bekker Adrian Jacobs, Ruan Pietersen, and Odwa Ndungane added to Nokwe's four tries, as South Africa bounced back from their 27-15 loss to the Aussies in Durban last week.
De Villiers chose Brian Mujati to replace the banned CJ Van der Linde and Odwa Ndungane came in for the suspended JP Pietersen, while the Wallabies made five changes with Berrick Barnes, Dan Vickerman, Adam Ashley-Cooper, Phil Waugh and Tatafu Polota-Nau starting.
The visitors' lead through Matt Giteau's penalty was short-lived as the Springboks scored two tries in three minutes. First, Andries Bekker crashed over on nine minutes with Nokwe crossing the line soon after.
Nokwe grabbed his second try on 27 minutes and completed his hat-trick eight minutes later, with Butch James kicking over his second conversion to give the home side a 27-3 lead going into the break.
And the Springboks continued to dominate in the second half and stretched their lead when Adrian James touched down on 44 minutes, with James converting.
Five minutes later, the world champions moved into a 39-3 lead when Nokwe dived over for his fourth try of the match.
Australia eventually stopped the rot on 56 minutes when Matt Drew finished off a sweeping move to score.
But the Springboks refused to ease off and scored their seventh try when Pietersen crashed over 12 minutes from time. And they sealed the rout on 78 minutes when Ndungane touched down.
Despite the heavy defeat, Australia still trail leaders New Zealand by one point and clash with the All Blacks in Brisbane on September 13th.