Boks within sight of title

South Africa changed their style significantly from a kicking-based game to one that kept the ball in hand more and scored four impressive tries to not only win 32-25, but secure a bonus point. Coach Peter de Villiers was delighted that his team is still undefeated this year in the Tri Nations and won their last five matches against Australia and New Zealand.

"It was a brilliant performance. We didn't have the platforms to play with that we wanted, but we still managed to play with the ball that we had, our defence was very good, our kicking game was outstanding as it always is and then we passed the ball around to score four tries," De Villiers said.

"There are a few things to work and we will study the video to do that, and there's always room for improvement in this team."

The rulings from referee Bryce Lawrence were the major reason why South Africa conceded 15 penalties to Australia's four, and De Villiers was bewildered watching on from the coaches' box at what was happening.

Despite that, he was pleased with how his team performed and wants to focus on the positives, which was everything outside of the scrum.

"We didn't have what we wanted especially from scrums, so we will go and study the video to see why. I couldn't understand it, but then again the character of the team stood out and the fact that we are working together as a unit makes me feel pleased with the result," he said.

"Most of the stuff we worked on worked and we have a 75% success rate. I don't think we'll focus on the negative. We will focus on what we did right and then add the other stuff to our game."

Springboks captain John Smit was right in the middle of the scrums and also didn't know what was going on in the referee's eyes, but hopes to turn it around on Saturday night in Brisbane.

"It was a bit of a lottery out there to be honest and sadly the numbers weren't coming up for us. The scrum penalties were frustrating and it's not something that we are used to giving away. It was quite bizarre and it did debilitate our momentum for some time," Smit said.