Wasteful Wallabies let Boks off the hook

AUSTRALIA coach Michael Cheika rued the inability of his Wallabies to close out matches after they surrendered a big lead for a second successive Test to draw against South Africa yesterday.

The Wallabies held a 17-0 lead over the All Blacks in their previous outing in Dunedin before losing 35-29 and were 20-10 up after 48 minutes in Perth yesterday before the Sprinboks stormed back and came close to winning.

The Boks got back on terms courtesy of a Malcolm Marx try from a catch-and-drive and Elton Jantjies gave the Springboks a 23-20 lead with his third penalty of the game on 68 minutes.

Bernard Foley salvaged the draw two minutes later but Cheika was left frustrated after his side failed to put the game to bed once again.

“We couldn’t close out the key moments, we kept leaving the opposition in the game and it ended up a draw,” he said.

“The key thing is they need to get better from that situation, because with ten up, we should have gone on with that.

“We made a few too many set-piece errors to build the pressure to finish that game off.”

A sprinkling of rain just before kick-off did nothing to dull the attacking intent of either side even if the result in terms of points was initially limited to an exchange of penalties between Jantjies and Foley.

The Springboks scored the first try of the game in the 26th minute as Jesse Kriel chased his own kick down the right touchline to touch down.

Australia replied directly from the ensuing kick-off with Kurtley Beale slicing through to score.

Foley converted and then added a penalty to put the hosts 13-10 ahead at the break which quickly became 20-10 when Tatafu Polota-Nau barged over from the back of a wellorganised driving maul.

Jantjies first reduced the gap with a penalty before his conversion of the try from Marx levelled the score on the hour.

Jantjies edged South Africa in front but Foley responded immediately with a long-range effort to set up a tense last ten minutes.

South Africa had the best chance of grabbing the win, going through phase after phase inside the Australia half as time ran out, but Jantjies fluffed his drop goal attempt when the ball finally came back to him.