Cape Town - Two tries in the final 10 minutes from captain Jean de Villiers earned South Africa a 28-10 bonus-point victory over Australia in their Rugby Championship match at Newlands on Saturday.
The Boks were below par but kept scrapping and incessant pressure in the closing stages paid off as De Villiers grabbed a double and flyhalf Pat Lambie another try to punish a tiring Australia to the relief of the crowd in a stadium where the Wallabies have not won since 1992.
Marcell Coetzee got the opening try for the home side with flyhalf Handre Pollard adding a penalty and his replacement Lambie a drop-goal and a conversion to go with his try.
Australia, who were the better side for 60 minutes, scored a try through winger Adam Ashley-Cooper and a conversion and penalty from flyhalf Bernard Foley.
But it was mostly a ragged display from the Springboks until the closing stages when Australia wilted and they took control.
There were too many loose passes, too many tackles missed and too little cohesion, while in contrast the Australians were doing all the basics right in the opening hour.
Both sides had wished for a dry field in the build-up to the test and got one, which did allow for more ball in hand.
But having played in the wet in their previous three games, the Boks looked like they had forgotten what it felt like to play running rugby.
Fullback Willie le Roux was a particular culprit, passing when he should have kicked and kicking when he needed to pass which served only to put team mates under pressure.
Australia were much more incisive, finding gaps in the home defence with regularity and were only kept at bay by some at times remarkable last-ditch defending from the Boks.
It was the home side who scored first, though, and it came in familiar fashion.
De Villiers turned down the opportunity for three points after Australia had strayed offside at a line-out and opted for a repeat of the set-piece five metres from the tryline.
This time there was no Wallaby infringement and flanker Coetzee scored the almost inevitable try from a driving maul.
But from then on, much of the first half belonged to the visitors.
Centre Tevita Kuridrani broke the combined tackle of Pollard and winger Bryan Habana, the latter leaving the field with concussion, and set Ashley-Cooper free to score.
When Foley added a penalty, the visitors deservedly led 10-5 at the break, with South Africa having conceded 11 turnovers in the first 40 minutes.
Two minutes into the second period and the Boks were awarded a penalty which Pollard converted to close the gap.
After Lambie had missed an easy penalty chance from right in front, what followed was relentless Bok pressure in the Australian 22.
Lambie made up for his miss with a drop-goal on 70 minutes that put the home side back in front.
And they pushed further ahead when De Villiers dived to score with nine minutes remaining and Lambie showed good strength to barge his way over.
De Villiers crossed again with the final play of the game to increase the home lead, but the game had been much closer than the scoreboard suggests.
Reuters