It marked a statement for the Wallabies in their first match under Kiss against one of the traditional rugby powers, albeit a shorthanded Springboks.<\/p>\n
The world\u2019s top-ranked side fielded a new-look line-up after making 13 changes from their test win over the All Blacks earlier this month in Baltimore.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very proud of the fight the boys showed at the end, but we have got to be better than that,\u201d South Africa stand-in captain Andre Esterhuizen said.<\/p>\n
South Africa were helpless countering Ikitau, who relished his shift to outside centre with several exhilarating runs through the middle.<\/p>\n
After trailing early, the Wallabies took control against a Springboks side still boasting 10 World Cup winners.<\/p>\n
The victory in the Mandela Challenge Plate means the Wallabies continued their unbeaten record under Kiss, who replaced Joe Schmidt in July in preparation for next year\u2019s home World Cup.<\/p>\n
Australia had kick-started the new era by beating Japan twice and then securing a first series triumph in Argentina.<\/p>\n
But they were dealt a blow ahead of the match after the withdrawal of lock Josh Canham, who was ruled out with a mild hamstring injury.<\/p>\n
Kiss made a major tactical adjustment with Suaalii starting on the wing for the first time in his career.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old rugby league convert made his presence felt immediately by spectacularly flying high after kickoff only to give away the penalty at the breakdown.<\/p>\n
Both teams felt each other out and traded penalties within the opening 10 minutes.<\/p>\n
The Springboks\u2019 vaunted physicality in set pieces came to the fore when Johan Grobbelaar crashed through for the match\u2019s first try.<\/p>\n
The Wallabies butchered several possessions, unable to handle the intense defensive pressure from their counterparts.<\/p>\n
But they were ignited by consecutive tries to Ikitau, with the latter a superb gather off an aerial contest before storming over the line.<\/p>\n
South Africa responded with Edwill van der Merwe\u2019s blistering run into the corner finishing off a superb chain of passes.<\/p>\n
A high-octane first half was capped when Ben Donaldson crossed in the left corner to reward a period of dominance for the home side.<\/p>\n
The Wallabies\u2019 momentum carried over in the second half even though Allan Alaalatoa failed to return to the field with a head injury.<\/p>\n
Lonergan\u2019s accurate penalty stretched the Wallabies\u2019 lead to 27-17, leading to South Africa coach Rassie Erasmus making eight changes to his starting line-up.<\/p>\n
But it did not do the trick, with Wilson and Max Jorgensen scoring before the late drama.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It marked a statement for the Wallabies in their first match under Kiss against one of the traditional…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[302112,190,9092,806,85,4498,6326,15458,23552,1320,127,18089,1888,3011,302111,78,19727,35019,111,139,69,94416,72,214802,22312,1240,213,8137,10809,765,165,17251,8238,34432,102,63722],"class_list":["post-613596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-302112","tag-africa","tag-against","tag-as","tag-australia","tag-beat","tag-biggest","tag-cards","tag-claimed","tag-coach","tag-despite","tag-dramatic","tag-first","tag-four","tag-ikitau","tag-in","tag-kiss","tag-les","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-oneoff","tag-perth","tag-scalp","tag-scored","tag-south","tag-sports","tag-springboks","tag-sunday","tag-test","tag-their","tag-twice","tag-under","tag-wallabies","tag-with","tag-yellow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}