The Wallabies absolutely slaughtered the Springboks on saturday keeping the boks pointless and racking up 49 points to nil.
It was the biggest winning margin in the history of the ten years of Tri Nations.
The first points of the match were scored by Larkham who out of the blue scored a drop goal his first in seven years of international rugby with the last coming in the 1999 Rugby World cup Semi final also against South Africa.
Australia were on the backfoot from last weeks hammering in New Zealand but bounced back brilliantly at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.
John Connolly’s men scored 20 points in the opening 25 minutes which ended the game as a contest. By half time they were 30-0 up and didn’t sit back and wait to defend instead they went on to score six unaswered tries against some woeful Springbok defence.
At one point the boks had missed 15 times the tackles that the Wallabies had missed. Top centre Matt Giteau marked his return with a brace, while hooker Jeremy Paul, prop Greg Holmes, full-back Chris Latham and replacement Mark Chisholm all crossed the line.
Latham nearly crossed for a second but was held up as were a few other potential tries.
In the first half Matfield was yellow carded and sent to the sin bin for 10 minutes. Whilst he was offf Australia benefited from the extra man with their third try of the half but it had little bearing on the game
After the break South Africa had a good 109 minute spell but failed to come away with any points and when Prop Os du Randt came off and Andrews was sent in it was a hint that Jake White knew had resigned himself to the loss.
The only consolation for Jake White’s men was the fact they narrowly avoided their record defeat, which remains the 53-3 reverse suffered against England at Twickenham in 2002.
The Boks must now regroup because they face champions New Zealand next week.
Australia 49 (30)
Tries: Paul, Holmes, Giteau 2, Latham, Chisholm, Cons: Mortlock 5 ,Pens: Mortlock 2 ,Drop: Larkham
Australia: Latham; Gerrard, Mortlock, Giteau, Tuqiri; Larkham, Gregan; Holmes, Paul, Shepherdson; Sharpe, Vickerman; Elsom, Smith, Fava.
Replacements: Hardman, Baxter, Chisholm, Waugh, Cordingley, Rogers, Rathbone.
South Africa: Montgomery; Ndungane, Fourie, Olivier, Habana; van der Westhuyzen, Januarie; du Randt, Smit, van der Linde, Matfield; Rossouw, van Niekerk, Smith, Spies.
Replacements: Coetzee, Andrews, van der Berg, Cronje, du Preez, Bosman, Paulse.
Referee: Paul Honiss (New Zealand)
