Flying start for Wallabies

Mitchell: First-half try

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Australia made a winning start to their Tri-Nations campaign as South Africa's nightmare run continued with a 30-13 defeat in Brisbane.

The Wallabies' slick passing play proved too much for the defending champions to handle, although the clinical touch that may have propelled them to a bonus point was lacking.

Matt Giteau scored five penalties to complement tries from Drew Mitchell and Will Genia as the Springboks, who went into the match on the back of two losses to the All Blacks, again suffered through indiscipline.

For the third match in a row, South Africa were temporarily reduced to 14 men as Jaque Fourie was shown the yellow card for lifting Richard Brown in the tackle early on.

The hosts looked to take advantage but could not find the crucial final pass as they broke into the Springboks' half at speed.

Stand-off Morne Steyn tried to claim the opening points of the contest just before the 10 minute mark but his ambitious drop-goal attempt fell short.

Lead

Just as Fourie re-entered the fray, Matt Giteau gave the Wallabies the lead with a long-range penalty after the visitors were penalised for offside.

Steyn levelled the match with a penalty of his own before Giteau gave his side the advantage again after sending a wide kick in off the upright.

The Brumbies centre then made it 9-3 with another penalty on 23 minutes as the Springboks continued to show indiscipline at the breakdown.

Both sides threatened the try-line with quick passing moves but neither managed to convert and it was left to Giteau to increase the lead with his fourth successful penalty.

The visitors began to play their way into the match but could not reduce the deficit, as pacy wing Bryan Habana was stopped just short of the line.

In fact it was Australia who pounced on the stroke of half-time as Giteau played in Mitchell, who juggled the ball before gathering and touching down.

Score

Giteau, who had missed a tough conversion before the interval, made the score 20-3 just after half-time with a simple penalty in-front of the posts.

Shortly afterwards, Mitchell made an explosive break that brought the hosts to the brink of the try-line but the South Africa defence held firm.

However, repeated infringements by the Springboks were finally acted upon by Irish referee George Clancy, who sent prop BJ Botha to the sin-bin and James O'Connor slotted the resulting penalty through the posts.

By now Australia were in total control, but the numbers were evened up at 14 each when fly-half Quade Cooper was shown the yellow card for a similar tackle to Fourie's in the early stages.

When Botha returned to the action, the visitors took advantage of the extra man to power their way over the try-line through Fourie, with Ruan Pienaar fluffing the conversion.

South Africa then sparked hopes of a late comeback when Gurthro Steenkamp charged over after a line-out inside the last 10 minutes, but scrum-half Genia killed the game off by sneaking in to score shortly afterward.