The new Australian coach Eddie Jones began his stint with the world champions in unspectacular style on Saturday as he watched the side, battle-hardened from a gruelling series win over the Lions, suffer a five-point Tri-Nations defeat to South Africa.
Since Jones replaced Rod Macqueen, who stepped down after leading the Wallabies to world, Tri-Nations and Lions triumphs during his four-year reign, there has been much speculation as to how he would settle into the role.
Jones had guided the ACT Brumbies to the Super 12 title this season but he was unable to help the national side break its three-match losing streak in the altitude of the Loftus Versfeld stadium.
However, the Australian captain John Eales said Jones's introduction to the Wallaby set-up was not a factor in the loss. "He will certainly be disappointed with the result, but we let ourselves down on the field, so that's a problem we have to fix," he said.
Jones said that his team was able to create opportunities, but struggled to find its rhythm. "The whole game was stop-start and it was very difficult," he said. "We couldn't get quick ball at the breakdown and our game depends on that."
The Springboks, led by a strong performance from the pack, particularly the tight-head prop Cobus Visagie, who was back in the team after successfully appealing a drugs ban, consistently caught the Wallabies behind the advantage line.
Braam van Straaten's kicking proved to be the difference, questioning the decision by the Springbok coach Harry Viljoen to leave him out of the team beaten 12-3 by the All Blacks in Cape Town last week. Van Straaten slotted all five penalty attempts and failed only with a touchline conversion of the number eight Bobby Skinstad's strong try on the stroke of half-time.
To add insult to injury, the Wallaby lock David Giffin received a three-week suspension for punching Robbie Fleck . Australia's next match is against New Zealand on August 11th.
Scorers - South Africa: Try: Skinstad. Penalties: Braam van Straaten 5. Australia: Penalties: Burke 4, Edmonds.
SOUTH AFRICA: Jantjes; Paulse, Fleck, Van Straaten, Hall; James, Van der Westhuizen; Skinstad (capt), Venter, Vos (Krige, 39min; Vos, h-t; Krige, 56), Andrews, Ackermann (Van Niekerk, 68), Visagie, Van Biljon (Smit, 68), Kempson (Le Roux, 65).
AUSTRALIA: Burke (Latham, 72); Walker, Herbert, Grey, Roff; Flatley (Edmonds, 68), Gregan; Kefu (Lyons, 72), Smith, Finegan, Eales (capt), Giffin (Cockbain, 56), Moore, Foley, Stiles.
Referee: David McHugh (Ireland).
Rugby league's fightback against the onslaught from rugby union began in earnest yesterday with a pledge to establish a war chest to keep its top players in the 13-man code.
The Rugby Football League has formed Club Great Britain in a joint initiative with the Super League clubs to "act as the funding arm to boost elite players' contracts, thus reducing the chances of losing key international players to other sports", as the mission statement put it. St Helens have been offered financial assistance to prevent their Great Britain hooker Keiron Cunningham defecting to rugby union in Wales in a first move towards central contracts to fight raids from the rival code.
The RFL, in co-operation with Super League, is understood to have offered to top up Saints' contract offer to match the joint bid from Wales and Swansea. The Wigan full back Kris Radlinski, who like Cunningham should be a key figure in the Britain team against Australia this autumn but has been targeted by the England rugby union set-up, may become the second member of the game's new club.
This is a small but significant step towards central contracts for the top players. It is understood to be the brainchild of Gary Hetherington, the chief executive of Leeds.
