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Rugby Union

Australia floor Springboks with 16-9 defeat

19/07/2008

Australia produced a stunning performance to defeat world champions South Africa 16-9 in Perth.

The Tri-Nations tournament has now been blown wide open with all three teams having recorded one victory from their three games, although South Africa and New Zealand lead the table on account of losing bonus points.

Tries from Lote Tuqiri and Stirling Mortlock were enough to earn victory for the Wallabies over a South Africa side that was hugely impressive in beating New Zealand last week.

The Springboks took the lead through a Francois Steyn penalty, but Tuqiri crossed shortly before half-time to give the home side a 5-3 advantage at the interval.

Tuqiri's try - following some good work from Nathan Sharpe and Matt Giteau - was his 29th for his country, a tally which puts him level with former Wallabies full-back Matt Burke as Australia's fifth-highest test try-scorer.

It took just five minutes of the second-half for Australia to extend their lead as captain Mortlock crashed through two South African tackles to cross in the corner.

Giteau missed the conversion, but added a penalty moments later to give Australia a ten-point advantage.

Butch James scored a penalty from under the posts to give South Africa hope, and when Steyn added another penalty with 11 minutes left it looked the Springboks could be on course for a remarkable comeback.

The game could have gone either way before Berrick Barnes landed a drop goal in the final minute to secure the win for Australia and throw the Tri-Nations wide open.

South Africa will play their final three matches of the series on home soil, against the All Blacks in Cape Town on August 16th and then back-to back-matches against Australia on August 23rd in Durban and August 30th in Johannesburg.