Australian rugby’s rebuild is back at ground zero after South Africa put a wrecking ball through Joe Schmidt’s Wallabies side in the first Test of the Rugby Championship, monstering them 33-7 in a torrid reality check in front of 52,019 at Suncorp Stadium.
Against the world champion Springboks, the young Australians barely fired a shot. Although they were willing in the opening minutes, the Wallabies’ familiar bogeys of ill-discipline, poor execution and unstructured tactics soon exposed them to an onslaught of hard-charging South African forwards and brilliant backline innovation.
