South Africa beat Australia 33-7 in Rugby Championship opener

Australia 7-33 South Africa, Brisbane

South Africa kick-started their Rugby Championship campaign with a comfortable 33-7 victory in the opening round at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on Saturday.

The result also is the first defeat for the Wallabies this year since Joe Schmidt took over as the head coach while the Springboks registered their first win over Australia in Brisbane since 2013.

Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu missed an early penalty chance at a 30m distance in the 7th minute but the Boks responded back shortly as they set up a maul around Bongi Mbonambi allowing Siya Kolisi to dive in the corner.

The Boks doubled their tally in the 24th minute as Pieter-Steph du Toit found the gap and went past the line and Feinberg-Mngomezulu kicked the conversion to make it 0-14.

The 31st minute saw Australia down to 14 players temporarily with Andrew Kellaway sin binned for a dangerous tackle on Cobus Reinach. With the numerical advantage on their side, the Springboks completed their third try with this time Kurtley Arendse gathered a loose ball to touchdown. Feinberg-Mngomezulu kicked two more points as Rassie Erasmus' men went into the break with a 0-21 lead.

The bonus point for the Boks came in the 63rd minute as Grant Williams sent a well timed pass for Kwagga Smith to dot down and Feinberg-Mngomezulu's conversion made it 0-28 before Arendse completed his second after good work from Jesse Kriel. The Boks lost Malcolm Marx to yellow card for a shoulder to head tackle on Rob Valetini and shortly Marco van Staden followed the suit for deliberately slowing the game.

Hunter Paisami scored the only try for the Wallabies in the 77th game before Jesse Kriel became the third Springbok player to be sin-binned for a deliberate knock on despite which they completed a 26 point victory.

The two teams will face again on 17th August for the second round.

Team line up:

Australia XV: 1. Isaac Kailea, 2. Matt Faessler, 3. Allan Alaalatoa (c), 4. Nick Frost, 5. Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, 6. Rob Valetini, 7. Carlo Tizzano, 8. Harry Wilson, 9. Jake Gordon, 10. Noah Lolesio, 11. Filipo Daugunu, 12. Hunter Paisami, 13. Len Ikitau, 14. Andrew Kellaway, 15. Tom Wright.

Reserves: 16. Josh Nasser, 17. James Slipper, 18. Zane Nonggorr, 19. Jeremy Williams, 20. Luke Reimer, 21. Tate McDermott, 22. Tom Lynagh, 23 Dylan Pietsch

South Africa XV: 15 Willie le Roux, 14 Cheslin Kolbe, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 10 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 9 Cobus Reinach, 8 Elrigh Louw, 7 Ben-Jason Dixon, 6 Siya Kolisi (c), 5 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Bongi Mbonambi, 1 Ox Nche

Reserves: 16 Malcolm Marx, 17 Gerhard Steenekamp, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 Salmaan Moerat, 20 Marco van Staden, 21 Kwagga Smith, 22 Grant Williams, 23 Handré Pollard