Australia held on with 11 men in a dramatic finish to beat a second-string South Africa outfit 42-38 at Perth Stadium on Sunday and extend their unbeaten run to five games since new coach Les Kiss took over in late July. Skipper Harry Wilson, Ryan Lonergan, Joseph Suaalii and Hunter Paisami were all shown yellow cards in the last 10 minutes as the world champions cut a 25-point deficit down to four at the final whistle.
Australia had looked to be cruising after centre Len Ikitau’s double and tries from flyhalf Ben Donaldson, number eight Wilson and winger Max Jorgensen combined with 17 points from the boot of scrumhalf Ryan Lonergan gave them a 42-17 lead after 65 minutes. The last 10 minutes threatened to undo all their earlier good work but the Wallabies will move on to back-to-back tests against the All Blacks in October without a loss in six games, their best unbeaten run since 2017.
