Saturday 6 September 2014 15:28, UK
Australia coach Ewen McKenzie praised the character of his team after they clinched a 24-23 victory over South Africa in the Rugby Championship.
The Wallabies began their campaign with a 12-12 draw with New Zealand but were then thrashed 51-20 by the All Blacks in Auckland in week two of the competition.
That was the result was the latest in a string of disappointments for McKenzie, who after taking over last summer had not registered a win against a side in the top four of the world rankings. But that unwanted run has now been ended.
"We knew it was going to be a game of character, coming from the loss in Auckland, we knew we needed to show some character," McKenzie told Fox TV.
"While it wasn't an extravagant scoreboard, a win against South Africa is no easy thing and to come from behind is even better."
Australia were nine points behind after 68 minutes but, with South Africa star Bryan Habana in the sin bin, Bernard Foley kicked a penalty then converted Rob Horne’s dramatic late try to secure the win.
McKenzie added: "We were happy with the first half but came out in the second half and promptly gave the ball away five or six times so ended up playing the rest of the game in front of our posts.
"The scoreboard was getting away from us. We did well to get back into it and made the most of it with that try at the end."
Habana was controversially shown a yellow card for his high tackle on Adam Ashley-Cooper but South Africa coach Heyneke Meyer did not offer any excuses for his side’s defeat.
"It was always going to be close, especially away from home, but I thought we were in control for large periods of the game," Meyer said.
"But all credit to them, you can't keep them out with 14 men in the last 10 minutes, especially away from home.
"I almost thought we had it, but the margins in this competition are very, very small. No excuses, they've done it and showed a lot of character at the end."
