PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) — Kurt-Lee Arendse scored a hat trick among South Africa's six straight tries as the world champions steamrolled Australia 43-12 in the opening round of the Rugby Championship on Saturday.
Australia scored the first and last tries at Loftus Versfeld but conceded 43 points in between to underline the task new coach Eddie Jones faces at the start of his second spell in charge of the Wallabies.
Winger Arendse improved his free-scoring start to international rugby with his eighth, ninth and 10th tries in his eighth test for the Boks.
Leading 17-5 at halftime, South Africa unleashed a ruthless performance in the second half, with Arendse completing his hat trick in the 50th minute and the Springboks adding two penalty tries — which also cost an Australia player a yellow card — and a final score by flanker Pieter-Steph du Toit.
Marika Koroibete flew down the left wing to put Australia into a surprise 5-0 lead in the eighth minute but the visitors were on the back foot for pretty much the entire game after that.
Carter Gordon came off the bench for his test debut and marked it with a breakaway consolation try in the last minute, set up by a pass from Koroibete.
The win was also a victory for South Africa's strength in depth ahead of its Rugby World Cup title defense this year as coach Jacques Nienaber didn't even use a string of his first-choice players, preferring to instead send them to New Zealand early to prepare for a test against the All Blacks next Saturday.
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