The Springboks and the Wallabies played to their second draw in this year's Rugby Championship, when their clash at Bloemfontein's Toyota Stadium ended in a 27-27 stalemate on Saturday night.
Bok flyhalf Elton Jantjies missed a late penalty that would have put South Africa ahead with about 90 seconds left to play, and possibly give the home team their third win of the tournament. But instead the teams followed up their 23-23 draw in Perth with another one in the Free State capital.
From the kickoff, the Boks showed a lot of intent on attack after their 57-0 drubbing at the hands of the All Blacks in Albany two weeks ago. They kept the ball for a full two minutes after Australia had started the game and managed to make metres down field.
However, the Wallabies opened the scoring with basically their first attack of the match, and for a moment it felt like the Boks were transported back to Albany, when they did all the attacking in the first quarter of the match but the All Blacks did all the scoring.
A mistake by inside centre Jan Serfontein led to the Boks conceding possession, which then led to an Australian scrum in South Africa's 22. The Wallabies shocked the Boks with a rehearsed move, as Israel Folau got on the end of a move that was executed with speed and precision.
The Boks hit back almost immediately, when they managed to force a few penalties in the Australian half that they kicked to touch. After mauling the ball up, the Bok forwards peeled off close to the line and had a crack at scoring. In the end, tighthead prop Ruan Dreyer powered over the line for his first international try.
However, that celebration turned out to be bittersweet, as the Boks lost No. 8 Uzair Cassiem to injury. He was replaced by Jean-Luc du Preez.
Jantjies and the impressive Australian flyhalf Bernard Foley traded a couple of penalties each after that, and the score was tied at 10-10 after 25 minutes.
Foley kicked another penalty in the 32nd minute to give Australia a 13-10 lead at the break. But the Wallabies were lucky to still have 15 men on the field going into halftime after Folau grabbed Bok wing Dillyn Leyds by the hair a couple of minutes from the break.
But the Boks came out firing in the second half, with one of their best tries of the year. Flank Siya Kolisi, who was playing in the wide channels for the Boks, got space on the right wing and built up a head of steam. He then steamrolled Kurtley Beale before offloading to Leads, who passed inside to Serfontein to go over in the 43rd minute.
The Wallabies struck back three minutes later when Foley broke the line with a great run, before offloading to Marika Koroibete to cross the line for a try on his international debut.
But the Springboks weren't done yet, and wing Courtnall Skosan rounded off a try that he started in his own half. The 26-year-old broke a tackle at the start of the move to give the Boks the momentum to have a go at the Wallabies. He then rounded off the move by showing his strength and determination to get over the line.
Koroibete scored his second try to give the Australians back the lead in what was turning out to be a seesaw affair. The Boks then hit back with another Jantjies penalty from long range to tie the scores at 27-27.
However, the flyhalf couldn't kick his final penalty, which would have given the Springboks the win. Alas, these two teams couldn't be separated after 160 minutes of rugby.
