Stephen Moore praises Australia character after win over South Africa
Saturday 18 July 2015 15:38, UK
Australia captain Stephen Moore was proud of the way his side rallied for their last-gasp 24-20 win over South Africa.
Tevita Kuridrani scored with the last play of the match to give the Wallabies a dramatic victory in their Rugby Championship opener in Brisbane.
The hosts had looked second best for three-quarters of the match as the Springboks forwards dominated their counterparts.
The visitors led 20-10 with six minutes remaining, but the longer the match went on the more dangerous the Wallabies looked.
"The character was there tonight," Moore said. "The effort, the belief to go to the end was there and that was something I was proud of."
Flanker Michael Hooper scored in the 75th minute to narrow the gap to three points before Kuridrani's heroics following Moore's decision to take a line-out rather than a kickable penalty that would have tied the match.
Moore said later he had no hesitation going for the try.
"We wanted to win the game and there wasn't much time left so I thought we'd have a crack and luckily it came off –other times it mightn't have," he said.
Australia coach Michael Cheika admitted he was calling for Moore to go for the penalty and a draw, but was delighted with the self-confidence his side showed.
"I'd be lying if I said I didn't yell out 'kick for goal' on the last penalty. Just goes to show the mentality of the Wallabies," said Cheika.
"This game, although not perfect, will give the guys a lot of self-confidence. Coming back like that tonight, when we were down, will give them a lot of self-belief going forward."
Heartbreaking
South Africa looked like they would hang on to win a pulsating Test match as the Wallabies threw everything at the tiring Springboks and their coach Heyneke Meyer said the decision to award Kuridrani's try could have gone either way.
"It depends on where you are sitting," Meyer said. "It was 50-50, it could have gone either way, but that's rugby. We believe the referee is always right – maybe next time it will go our way.
"We had a lot of youngsters, we lost our captain early (when Victor Matfield went off with a hamstring strain), but I thought we played well.
"It was really heartbreaking. You have to be 100 per cent on your game to win away from home and the Wallabies proved that tonight."
