This was the last home game for Stephen Larkham and George Gregan, two of the stellar backs in world rugby, with Larkham celebrating his 100th cap and Gregan his 133rd. Yet for all those milestones, at one stage it was looming as the biggest humiliation in Australian rugby history. Eventually the Wallabies pulled through without ever being devastating, and they deserved to. But they trailed by 17 points with the match still in the first quarter, against a second-string South Africa team.
Jake White, the South Africa coach, had been saying for weeks that he would consider keeping his first-choice players at home in the latter stages of the Tri-Nations for conditioning work before the World Cup. When he announced his shadow team for this match, he was savaged the length and breadth of the southern hemisphere, ridiculed by the Australian management, players and union. It was said that he had devalued international rugby. There would have been a banquet of word-eating had the Springboks managed to hold on to their sensational early lead.
Both teams now move on for away fixtures against New Zealand, perhaps with trepidation. Yet again, Australia were maddening. Gregan has been heavily criticised of late, but he looked splendidly sharp. There was some good driving forward play from Stephen Hoiles in the back-row and from Nathan Sharpe in the second row. Furthermore, Australia often looked deadly behind the scrum, where Stirling Mortlock and Matt Giteau are forming a centre partnership to compare with any in the world.
But the Wallabies were again unconvincing in the scrum and were never ruthless enough, even when the opposition lost Gary Botha and later Johan Muller to the sin-bin. And they have conceded early leads in all three of their most recent Test matches.
South Africa's pride will remain intact after this performance, and Pedrie Wannenburg and Wikus van Heerden were lively in the back row. Ruan Pienaar was also effective at scrum-half, but the South Africans were starved of possession almost from the time they went 17-0 ahead and the inexperience of some of their younger and newer players was obvious. So was the lack of expertise of Derick Hougaard at fly-half.
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Yet it will take some time for the warm memories of that opening passage of play to leave South African fans. John Connolly, the Australia coach, has been alarmed at some of the speculative play of his team lately. Before the game he was at pains to point out that they should not simply ship the ball along the line. "You have to earn the right to move the ball wide," he said.
It seemed that nobody had been listening. His players made a mess of an overoptimistic back movement going left after only three minutes. The visitors were awarded a scrum, they drove powerfully for the Australian line and after an electric burst on the fringes from Botha, there was space for Van Heerden to force his way over.
Only a few minutes after that, Australia tried to force the ball again. Nathan Sharpe popped up in midfield, sent out a speculative pass, Breyton Paulse intercepted and ran away joyously to score. Hougaard kicked both conversions, then added a penalty after an offence by Sharpe, and it was 17-0.
Australia have been well known for multiphase attacking in the past few seasons, but when they came back into the game in the second quarter, the score came from a brilliant one-phase attack.
Matt Dunning came round to act as scrum-half after a lineout win, Gregan doubled round behind him as first receiver, and with Mortlock on the dummy run to fix defenders, Larkham made a try for Mark Gerrard with an inside pass. It was beautifully executed and it calmed Australian nerves. Mortlock added the conversion and penalty, so at half-time the damage had been limited and it was only 17-10 against Australia.
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Australia's forwards were in powerful form after the break and it took four minutes of the second half for them to draw level. Again they attacked early in the phases, with good work from Mortlock and Giteau and a few powerful carries by the forwards. Eventually Hoiles burst through a dog-leg of a defensive line to score down the left, leaving Mortlock's conversion to tie the scores.
Towards the end of the third quarter the hime side took the lead for the first time with a penalty by Mortlock. The stage was set, especially when Botha was sent to the sin-bin for kicking the ball away in a prone position.
Australia moved the ball from the lineout, it was set up by Mortlock and then brilliant handling by George Smith and Mortlock sent Gerrard away down the right wing. He kicked ahead, Giteau followed up, scooping up the ball with real skill at full pace, and fought his way over the line for the try that took Australia more than one score ahead.
The Wallabies should have used this calming score to set up a thumping margin of victory, but again their momentum became sporadic when the South Africans were there for the taking. The Springboks could even have salvaged an unlikely bonus point when they broke away towards the end. Considering the prematch publicity, that would have represented something of a triumph.
As it is, and although Australia and South Africa both appear to be improving, we have apparently not yet found a team to shake the All Blacks' grip on the Tri-Nations, let alone their apparent hold on the World Cup. It seems likely that the two New Zealand legs could be something of a cruise.
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Star man: George Gregan (Australia)
Australia: J Huxley; A Ashley-Cooper, S Mortlock (capt), M Giteau, M Gerrard; S Larkham, G Gregan; M Dunning (G Shepherdson 74min), A Freier (S Hardman 65min), G Shepherdson (A Baxter 61min), N Sharpe, D Vickerman, R Elsom (H McMeniman 60min), G Smith (P Waugh 72min), S Hoiles (D Lyons 65min).
South Africa: B Fortuin (M Claassens 74min); B Paulse, W Murray, W Olivier, J P Pietersen; D Hougaard, R Pienaar (P Grant 74min); C J van der Linde (B du Plessis 54min), G Botha, J du Plessis (E Andrews 74min), J Ackermann (A van den Berg 30min), J Muller, W Van Heerden, P Wannenberg, B Skinstad (capt) (J Cronje 63min).
Yellow cards: G Botha (53min), J Muller (76min).
Scorers: Australia: Tries: Gerrard 22, Hoiles 43, Giteau 55 Conversions: Mortlock (2). Penalties: Mortlock (2)
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Tries: Van Heerden 6, Paulse 8 Conversions: Hougaard (2). Penalty: Hougaard
Referee: P Honiss (New Zealand);
Attendance: 51,174;
TV today: highlights, Sky Sports 3, 7am