Matt Giteau gets kick out of Springboks as Australia stun South Africa

Australia 30-13 South Africa
matt Giteau
Australia's Matt Giteau was in imperious form for the Wallabies. Photograph: Jason O'Brien/Action Images

South Africa's continued indiscipline and failure to adapt to the change in the way the breakdown is being refereed contributed to their third heavy defeat in the Tri-Nations in as many weeks. The champions, still looking for their first point, have little chance of retaining their title and although they matched Australia on tries they were overrun for long periods.

The Springboks failed to survive the opening quarter in their two matches in New Zealand without losing a player to the sin-bin and they were down to 14 men after two minutes in Brisbane today when the centre Jaque Fourie was given 10 minutes off for tipping the No8 Richard Brown on his head in a tackle.

The prop BJ Botha visited the cooler at the start of the second half for slowing down the ball on his own line and the flanker Schalk Burger, who was suspended for eight weeks last year for making contact around the eyes of the Lions wing Luke Fitzgerald, will have a nervous weekend waiting to see if he will be cited after cameras caught him putting his hand near the eyes of the flanker David Pocock. South Africa have this month complained that match officials are conspiring against them but they are merely being punished for acts of stupidity.

Australia also lost a player to the sin-bin, the outside-half Quade Cooper seeing yellow for dumping his opposite number, Morne Steyn, on his head but the Wallabies were by then 23-3 ahead and his absence halted only their push for a bonus point.

The Wallabies looked to replicate the All Blacks by keeping the ball in hand and running from deep but, in their first Test for a month, they lacked New Zealand's understanding and showed signs of rust: runs by supporting players were not picked up, passes were hurried or delayed and try-scoring opportunities were wasted but they played at a pace that left the Springboks, who looked more threatening when they were chasing kicks, scrambling.

Cooper kicked the ball out of hand only once and South Africa were not able to fall back on their set-piece supremacy. With Pocock exerting pressure at the breakdown and, as New Zealand had, exploiting South Africa's lack of a specialist open-side wing forward, the Springboks conceded a glut of penalties that Matt Giteau exploited to put Australia 12-3 ahead after 30 minutes.

South Africa showed more willingness to run than they had in New Zealand, John Smit flicking a pass in his own 22 in the third minute, but they kept cutting back inside and struggled to generate quick ball at the breakdown. They got the ball wide more when Butch James replaced Steyn in the third quarter, but by then they were playing for a bonus point.

It took Australia until the end of the first half to score their first try. James O'Connor thought he had scored in the corner after 22 minutes, but before the video referee was summoned Giteau's pass to the wing was deemed forward. The game turned when Pocock's tackle denied Bryan Habana a try: the Wallabies moved up field, Rocky Elsom stole a line-out and Drew Mitchell caught Giteau's deflected pass at the fourth attempt to put his side 17-3 up at the break.

South Africa failed to respond after the interval. The Wallabies extended their lead with penalties from Giteau and O'Connor before Jaque Fourie, when Australia were down to 14 men, forced his way over. The prop Gurthrö Steenkamp made it 23-13 when he was shoved over the line after a line-out, but Ruan Pienaar missed both conversions and Will Genia sealed victory when he dummied over from a ruck.