Rugby: Wallabies bounce back to blitz Boks

Australia 39South Africa 20

AUSTRALIA bounced back from defeat against Samoa by opening their Tri Nations campaign in style with a five-try hammering of South Africa in Sydney.

Stunning tries from prop Ben Alexander and wing Digby Ioane plus a conversion and penalty from James O'Connor helped Australia to a 15-6 interval lead, Morne Steyn kicking two penalties for the Springboks.

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Further tries followed from O'Connor, Stephen Moore and Adam Ashley-Cooper, with O'Connor adding all three conversions and a penalty for a personal haul of 19 points.

Chiliboy Ralepelle and John Smit crossed for the Springboks but those tries will have been little consolation for coach Peter de Villiers and his injury-hit side, who were second best in all facets of the game.

The Wallabies had come in for plenty of criticism following that shock reverse against the Samoans, but they looked a completely different proposition as they hit the Springboks with a rapid-fire try double inside the first 12 minutes.

Quade Cooper launched the attack for the first score from inside his own 22, stepping inside a host of tacklers to break clear. The fly-half found Kurtley Beale and O'Connor in support before the ball was worked to the left touchline for Rocky Elsom to allow Alexander to canter over.

O'Connor added the extras and the second try quickly followed. Scrum-half Will Genia made the break and fed Ioane, who beat a weak tackle from Gio Aplon to cross for an unconverted try.

Steyn got the Boks on the board on the half-hour mark with a penalty after Ashley-Cooper slowed down the ball illegally at a ruck, but O'Connor responded with a penalty of his own to restore Australia's 12-point advantage.

And the Wallabies came close to further extending that lead as Beale and O'Connor linked superbly on the counter-attack to send the full-back racing into the South Africa 22, but lock James Horwill could not hold his pass.

A powerful rolling maul did at least allow Steyn to knock over his second penalty on half-time and keep South Africa in the game, but the ponderous Boks had plenty of work to do.

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But the game was killed off within eight minutes of the restart as Australia wrapped up a try bonus point.

Firstly, Cooper exploited a gaping hole between Juan de Jongh and Wynand Olivier to send out a low pass that O'Connor stooped to gather and score, the wing adding the extras.Then Moore chose a brilliant angle to race on to a flat Cooper pass and beat Aplon to dot down by the posts, O'Connor's conversion making it 29-6.

O'Connor added his second penalty shortly before more skilful offloading from Cooper created the fifth try as his flip pass sent Ashley-Cooper into space, O'Connor once again on target with the extras.

A pair of short-range tries from front-rowers Ralepelle and captain Smit lessened the damage for the visitors but were never likely to change the result.

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