Springboks score 38 points and still fall to Wallabies in Perth thriller

South Africa scored five tries and 38 points at Optus Stadium in Perth on Sunday and still lost, falling 42-38 to Australia in a result that sits among the most unusual in Springbok history.

The much-changed world champions had only once previously scored more points without winning a Test match — the 39-41 Tri-Nations defeat to Australia in Bloemfontein in 2010, when Morne Steyn contributed 24 points through three conversions and six penalties and it still was not enough.

Sunday’s defeat also places the Springboks in rare company when it comes to five-try losing performances. The only other occasion they crossed five times in a losing cause came in 1997, when New Zealand beat them 55-35 at Eden Park. Ruben Kruger, Gary Teichmann, Percy Montgomery, Joost van der Westhuizen and Pieter Rossouw all scored that day, though the match was played in the shadow of Andre Venter’s sending-off.

The Perth result means the Springboks now occupy second place in the unwanted list of their highest-scoring defeats: 39 points in Bloemfontein in 2010 remains the benchmark, followed by Sunday’s 38, then the 35 conceded in Auckland in 1997.

The broader context underlines just how much the game has changed. Defence coach Shaun Edwards noted earlier this year that going five matches without conceding a try — a feat the 1999 Wallabies came close to across an entire World Cup — is now essentially impossible at Test level. The Perth scoreline, with 80 combined points and nine tries, is a vivid illustration of that shift.

For South Africa, the defeat will sting less for the margin than for what it represents: a rare occasion when their attacking output was simply outpaced, rather than outlasted.