Perth - Springbok wing Bryan Habana, playing in his 100th Test, has admitted his second half yellow card "probably cost the team a little".
As it happened: Wallabies v Springboks
The Wallabies won 24-23 thanks to a late try by wing Rob Horne which saw the Springboks slip to second in the standings.
The match turned on Irish referee George Clancy's decision to sin-bin Habana for a high tackle on Adam
Ashley-Cooper in the 65th minute.
For Habana, 10 minutes in the sin-bin was not the way he wanted to remember his 100th Test, but he was typically magnanimous in defeat.
"Definitely not the result we were looking for and certainly that yellow card probably cost the team a little so I have to look at myself and see where I went wrong," he said.
"You have to give credit to them, they didn't stop believing, they didn't stop attacking, I think they tried to keep ball in hand as much as possible tonight.
"I think that shows character after the loss against the All Blacks a
couple of weeks ago."
Teams:
Australia
15 Israel Folau, 14 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 13
Tevita Kuridrani, 12 Matt Toomua, 11 Rob Horne, 10 Bernard Foley, 9
Nick Phipps, 8 Wycliff Palu, 7 Michael Hooper (captain), 6 Scott Fardy, 5
Rob Simmons, 4 Sam Carter, 3 Sekope Kepu, 2 James Hanson, 1 James
Slipper
Substitutes: 16 Josh Mann-Rea, 17 Pek Cowan, 18 Ben
Alexander, 19 James Horwill, 20 Scott Higginbotham, 21 Matt Hodgson, 22
Nic White, 23 Kurtley Beale
South Africa
15
Willie le Roux, 14 Cornal Hendricks, 13 Jan Serfontein, 12 Jean de
Villiers (captain), 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Ruan Pienaar, 8
Duane Vermeulen, 7 Marcell Coetzee, 6 Francois Louw, 5 Victor Matfield, 4
Eben Etzebeth, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Adriaan Strauss, 1 Tendai
Mtawarira.
Substitutes: 16 Bismarck du Plessis, 17 Trevor
Nyakane, 18 Marcel van der Merwe, 19 Lood de Jager, 20 Warren Whiteley,
21 Francois Hougaard, 22 Pat Lambie, 23 Damian de Allende