South Africa kick-start Rugby Championship 2019 with bonus-point win over Australia

South Africa 35-17 Australia, Emirates Airline Park
Scorecard

South Africa made a dream start to the Rugby Championship 2019 tournament as they completed a 35-17 bonus point win over Australia at Emirates Airline Park on Saturday.

Herschel Jantjies made a dream debut after S'busiso Nkosi broke on the right wing before offloading to scrum-half and Elton Jantjies kicked the conversion to make it 7-0.

Bernard Foley responded back with a 17th minute penalty goal to make the scoreline 7-3 but Rassie Erasmus side suffered a setback when Andre Esterhuizen was yellow carded for making a high tackle on Tom Banks.

Despite, the setback Lood de Jager capitalised on a chip kick from Pieter-Steph du Toit to score the side's second try making the scoreline 14-3 and finally Australia made use of the numerical advantage with Dane Haylett-Petty dotting down in the 29th minute and Foley improved it as the teams went into the break with a 14-10 scoreline.

Springboks made a brisk start to the second half but Jantjies missed a penalty goal but their campaign got boosted when Australia lost Taniela Tupou to the sin-bin for a dangerous clear-out and this time Nkosi (56') and Herschel (62') scored tries to provide the hosts with a clear advantage of 28-10 lead.

As the final 10 minutes kicked-off, a converted try from Foley in the 71st minute narrowed down the gap to 11 points but Cobus Reinach with the fifth try for the Boks in the final minute ensured they completed a 35-17 win.