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Eddie Jones' Wallabies plastered in Pretoria by Springboks
By AAP
The Wallabies have turned in a horror first Test under coach Eddie Jones, falling 43-12 to South Africa to continue their 60-year drought in Pretoria.
The Australians arrived at Loftus Versfeld, where they have never tasted victory, looking to usher in a winning era under Jones in his second stint as Wallabies coach.
But their plans of opening the Rugby Championship with a victory on Saturday were left in tatters with few Wallabies boosting their World Cup stocks.
They started with a bang, as star winger Marika Koroibete barrelled across the line in the seventh minute before the home side piled on 41 unanswered points.
That included two penalty tries, with hooker Dave Porecki and winger Suliasi Vunivalu both handed yellow cards for sloppy attempts to stop South Africa scoring.
Debutant five-eighth Carter Gordon scored in the 80th minute, putting his hand up to replace Quade Cooper in the No.10 jersey next week against Argentina.
The Au stralians' defence was in disarray throughout, making more than double the amount of tackles with the burly Boks winning the collisions.
They also looked clueless in attack, with playmaker Cooper failing to take control and put their opponents under pressure while his own team felt the heat, conceding 13 penalties.
The Wallabies repeatedly played into South Africa's hands by kicking away possession while handling errors cruelled many an attacking raid.
Lightning winger Kurt-Lee Arendse bagged a hat-trick, exposing Vunivalu who had a shocker in his first Test start.
Arendse scored twice in the opening 40 minutes as the home side surged to a 17-5 halftime lead and added a third in the 50th minute.
Reece Hodge's radar was off target, with the inside centre missing all three first-half attempts including a late 66m effort which fell short and he was replaced by Samu Kerevi early in the second stanza.
A number of Springboks sta rs missed the match to head to New Zealand to prepare for the All Blacks but they showed their depth across the park.
Jones rang the changes but his replacements were unable to much of make an impact on the world champions, who were cheered on by more than 50,000 in the stands.
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Latest Comments
Recent complaints that SA players have a 12-month workload isn't of itself a credible enough excuse to lay at the door of EPCR administrators. If SA clubs want to participate in NH league and club competitions and also participate in SH internationals, then clearly something has to give.
From the EPCR perspective, I do think that the format/schedule issues can be fixed if there's a strong enough desire to remove some of the logistical challenges clubs are facing with these long and frequent trips across the hemispheres.
From the SA player workload perspective however, I'm not sure how players can participate safely and competitively at both the club and international levels. Perhaps - and as Rassie appears to be developing, SA develop a super squad with sufficient player numbers and rotation to allow players to compete across the full 12-month calendar.
Bottom line though, is the geographical isolation is always going to restrict SA's ability to having the best of both worlds.
Go to commentsMoriaty refused to play for wales also he’s injured, France’s is being coy about wales, North in the dark but Sam David and jerad are you joking their not good enough
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