Springboks v Wallabies: Stats and facts

AUSTRALIA v SOUTH AFRICA @ OPTUS STADIUM, PERTH – KO 5.30PM (11.30 SAST) ON SUNDAY

REFEREE NOTES

Andrea Piardi (Italy)

Test debut: 17 March, 2018 – Switzerland 30-24 Poland

Tests as referee: 22

• Andrea Piardi will take charge of this fixture for the first time.

• Australia are yet to taste victory with Piardi in the middle, having lost to Ireland (22-19 in the 2024 Autumn Nations Series), the British & Irish Lions (29-26 in 2025) and New Zealand (33-24 in the 2025 Rugby Championship).

• Only one of those was on home soil, the loss to the Lions in the second Test at the MCG in Melbourne.

• South Africa, by contrast, have won their only previous Test with the Italian referee in charge, beating Argentina 29-27 at Allianz Stadium in London in last year’s Rugby Championship.

• This is the second Test that Piardi will referee on Australian soil this year, having taken charge of Ireland’s 36-20 victory over Japan in Newcastle during the Nations Championship in July.

• This is Piardi’s third Test of the year, having also refereed Ireland’s 42-12 defeat of England at Allianz Stadium in the Guinness Men’s Six Nations. However, he didn’t complete that game after being forced off with injury.

HEAD-TO-HEAD

1921-2025 | Played 97* | Australia 53 | South Africa 41 | Draw 3

Points for: Australia 1 732/South Africa 1 980 (Avg. score: 18-20)

Highest score: South Africa 61 (61-22 on 23 August, 1997)/Australia 49 (49-0 on 15 July, 2006) Biggest winning margin: South Africa 45 (53-8 on 30 August, 2008)/Australia 49 (49-0 on 15 July, 2006)

* Only Tests for both teams (first three matches were non-cap for South Africa)

First met: 25 June, 1921 – South Africa 25-10 Australia (non-cap match for South Africa)

• South Africa’s 30-22 victory in their last meeting was the first match in six games in which the points margin between the teams was in single figures.

• Handré Pollard converted tries from Canan Moodie, Kwagga Smith and Eben Etzebeth, as well as kicking three penalties for a 15-point haul.

• Australia also scored three tries through Corey Toole, Max Jorgensen and Brandon PaengaAmosa, while James O'Connor kicked seven points.

• The Springboks have won five of the last six encounters, with the outlier being Australia’s remarkable 38-27 win in Johannesburg in the 2025 Rugby Championship, the week before they met again in Cape Town.

• Australia came from 22-0 down a quarter of the way through the game to beat the world champions, with captain Harry Wilson leading the charge with a brace of tries.

• Dylan Pietsch, Max Jorgensen and Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii also crossed for the visitors before Tom Wright's superb solo try rounded off one of Australia's greatest Test wins.

• It was their first win at Ellis Park in 62 years and their first win in South Africa in 14 years.

• All of South Africa’s points came inside the first quarter, with a brace of tries from Andre Esterhuizen bookended by scores from Kurt-Lee Arendse and Siya Kolisi.

• South Africa ran out 30-12 winners when the sides last met in Perth in the 2024 Rugby Championship with Malcolm Marx grabbing a brace in the 30-12 victory.

• However, Australia lead the head-to-head in the city 5-4 with one draw.

• South Africa won their first six matches in Australia, with their first defeat against the Wallabies there coming in 1965.

• Since then, though, the Wallabies have been dominant on home soil and the overall head to-head in Australia is now 28-17 in their favour, with two draws.

• The Springboks have a better track record of success in Perth than elsewhere in Australia (P7, W4, D1, L2).

• South Africa are the current holders of the Nelson Mandela Plate, the prize at stake whenever these two teams meet.

AUS TEAM NOTES

• Australia are unbeaten in their last five Tests – their best such run since September/October 2021 (W5).

• It is nine years since Australia went six test matches unbeaten (September/October 2017, W5, D2).

• Australia’s last defeat was in the second round of the Nations Championship when they lost 42-26 at home to France.

• Australia have only won six of their last 15 matches at home (40%).

• The scores were tied at 14-14 at half-time when Australia played Argentina in their last Test earlier this month, maintaining the Wallabies’ record of never being behind at the interval in 2026 (W5, D2).

• Australia have scored 260 points this year at an average of 37.1 per match.

• Only four of the 21 tries scored by Australia (including a penalty try) in the four matches since the Nations Championship Southern Hemisphere Series have been scored by backs (Max Jorgensen 2, Harry Potter and Tom Wright 1 each).

• Flanker Fraser McReight has scored in three of those four matches and is Australia’s leading try scorer in 2026 (5).

• Kicking three conversions, leading points scorer Ryan Lonergan passed 50 points (52) for 2026 in the 28-28 draw with Argentina.

• The Wallabies are third in the Nations Championship southern hemisphere standings on eight points from one win and two defeats in July.

• Australia lost to Ireland (33-31) and France (42-26) before beating Italy 57-10 in their final home match in July.

• The defeat to France was Australia’s sixth in a row – their worst run since 2015-16 but they snapped the sequence with the win over Italy.

• Josh Canham became the first Wallabies second-row to score a hat-trick in a Test match when he crossed three times against the Azzurri.

• Canham is the second-highest try scorer in the competition with four.

• However, Ryan Lonergan is Australia’s leading points scorer in the Nations Championship with 21 (eight conversions and a try).

• Australia only kicked 12 of their 20 attempts at goal in the Nations Championship, their 60% success rate being the worst in the competition.

• One of their two penalty attempts was the long-range effort by Ben Donaldson, which, had it gone over, would have won the game against Ireland.

• Australia have scored the majority of their Nations Championship points (73%) in the first half of matches (83/114).

• The Wallabies have the best conversion rate when it comes to turning entries into the opposition 22 into tries (58.1%).

• Only New Zealand (126) beat more defenders than Australia (116).

• Australia are joint-first for the percentage of restarts retained (15.8%, along with Ireland and New Zealand).

• Australia made the lowest number of tackles (388) and their success rate of 75.8% is the 10th best in the competition.

• Following this weekend’s match, Australia will take a break before the 2026 Bledisloe Cup encounters with New Zealand on 10 and 17 October.

SQUAD NOTES

• Wallabies head coach Les Kiss has drafted in three new players for this fixture.

• Jordan Petaia, who hasn’t featured for the Wallabies since Rugby World Cup 2023 in France, returns, alongside Western Force fly-half Harry McLaughlin-Phillips and Queensland Reds prop Zane Nonggorr.

• Queensland Reds outside-back Filipo Daugunu and prop Massimo De Lutiis both miss out due to workload management, while Dylan Pietsch is injured.

• With Reds playmaker Carter Gordon out with injury, the uncapped McLaughlin-Phillips is called up for cover.

• Australia have also lost back-row Charlie Cale to a shoulder injury this week with Nick Champion de Crespigny joining up with the squad in Perth.

COACH NOTES

• Les Kiss is still unbeaten as Wallabies head coach (W3, D1).

• The Australian succeeded Joe Schmidt as head coach of the Wallabies following the Nations Championship Southern Hemisphere Series.

• He is the first Queensland-born Wallabies head coach since John Connolly two decades ago.

• The former Kangaroos Rugby League winger spent three seasons as head coach of Queensland Reds before accepting the Wallabies job.

• Having briefly worked with the Springboks at the start of his coaching career in 2001, Kiss continued to build up his CV with stints at the Waratahs and Australia 'A', as well as spending some time in Japan.

• After six seasons at the Waratahs, Kiss was appointed defence coach of Ireland in 2008.

• In 2015, he became director of rugby at Ulster and lasted three years in the role before being let go.

• Shortly after his departure from Ulster in January 2018, Kiss was appointed head coach of London Irish, where he stayed until the club folded in 2023.

SA TEAM NOTES

• Following their 3-1 win over New Zealand in the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series, South Africa’s rating in the World Rugby Men’s Rankings has gone above 95 points for the first time in history.

• This is still some way behind the overall World Rugby Rankings record rating of 98.09, held by England’s women until their 26-26 draw with Canada in the WXV Global Series last weekend.

• South Africa outscored New Zealand across the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series by 121 points to 111 but the All Blacks scored more tries (17-14).

• The Springboks held the lead for 210 minutes across the series compared to New Zealand's 77 (42 of which were in the All Blacks’ first Test victory).

• South Africa conceded 35 penalties across four tests to the All Blacks' 43 but had four players sin-binned to New Zealand’s one.

• On average, South Africa conceded six points for every 10 minutes they had fewer than 15 players on the field.

• Nearly a third of the penalties awarded to South Africa came at the scrum (13).

• Adding to their set-piece dominance, South Africa only lost two of their 43 throws into the line-out (95.3%) compared to New Zealand’s eight.

• South Africa’s kick retention success rate was 23% compared to New Zealand’s 18%.

• The Springboks gained more metres against New Zealand in the fourth and final Test (695) than in any other game against the All Blacks in the last 10 years.

• While New Zealand were more clinical in the opposition 22 over the duration of the series, the 4.8 points for every entry that South Africa managed in the second Test was the most ruthless they’d been in attack against the All Blacks in the last 10 years.

• South Africa have only lost three of their last 26 Tests (38-22 v Australia and 24-17 v New Zealand in 2025 and 33-16 v New Zealand last month).

• South Africa have conceded four tries or more in each of their last four Tests.

• South Africa conceded five tries in a Test for the first time in 15 matches when losing 33-16 to New Zealand in the first Test of the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series.

• The defeat ended South Africa’s 12-match winning streak – their best sequence of results under Erasmus and the most consecutive wins since they achieved 13 in a row between 2007-08.

• South Africa conceded multiple yellow cards in a single match for the first time in 24 Tests in that opening encounter.

• South Africa have yet to trail at half-time in 2026 (W5, D3), with their first-half points total ranging from 10 to 24.

• Malcolm Marx, Damian de Allende, Jesse Kriel and Kurt-Lee Arendse finished as the Springboks’ leading try scorers for the series with two.

• Cheslin Kolbe finished as the Springboks’ leading points scorer in the series with 29 (all from kicks), despite a broken jaw cutting short his involvement in the third Test and preventing him playing in the fourth test.

• South Africa went into the August/September Test window, which began with a 17-10 win over Argentina, sitting on top of the Nations Championship southern hemisphere standings on points difference, having picked up maximum points from their first three fixtures.

• The Springboks’ points difference is +81, 30 better than fellow unbeaten side New Zealand.

• With the win over Scotland in round two, South Africa became the first team since England in 2002-03 to beat every Men’s Six Nations and Rugby Championship team in a 12-month period.

• South Africa scored the most points (130) and tries (20) in the Nations Championship.

• Strong at the start and finish, seven of South Africa’s tries were scored in the first quarter and seven in the final quarter.

• The Springboks had the most entries into the opposition 22 across the first three rounds.

SQUAD NOTES

• Pieter-Steph du Toit and Damian de Allende have been released from the Springbok camp to rest after starting all four matches in the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series.

• They both became Test centurions during the series but have returned home.

• Rassie Erasmus has made 13 changes to the starting line-up from the fourth Test in Baltimore with only Eben Etzebeth and Ethan Hooker retaining their places.

• Andre Esterhuizen will captain South Africa for the first time from centre, becoming the 68th player to lead the Springboks.

• Handré Pollard comes in at flyhalf after missing the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series through injury and will partner Herschel Jantjies at half-back.

• Second-row Franco Mostert will wear the green and gold for the first time in 2026.

• Jasper Wiese has been named on the bench and will bring up 50 Tests when called upon, having made his Test debut against Georgia in 2021.

COACH NOTES

• Rassie Erasmus returned to the Springbok head coach role in February 2024, signing a contract that takes him through to the end of 2027.

• The win over Les Bleus at the Stade de France on 8 November, 2025 was his 50th as head coach.

• He has overseen 35 Tests in his second spell, winning 30 and losing five (85.7%).

• Overall, he has been in charge of 61 Tests as head coach and moved past Jake White as the Springboks’ most experienced coach during the Nations Championship.

• Erasmus was the mastermind behind the Springboks’ back-to-back Rugby World Cup successes of 2019 and 2023 – as head coach and then director of rugby.

• He also led South Africa to their first Rugby Championship title in five years in 2024 and a clean sweep of victories in the Autumn Nations Series that followed.

• His first reign in charge started with a defeat to Wales in Washington DC in June 2018.

• Erasmus won 36 caps for South Africa as a back-row forward from 1997-2001.

WORLD RUGBY MEN’S RANKINGS PERMUTATIONS

• South Africa cannot increase their record rating of 95.09 due to the 11.54 points separating the teams.

• The Springboks will retain their No 1 ranking even if they are well beaten, as a defeat by more than 15 points would still leave them 0.94 points clear of New Zealand.

• Australia will replace Scotland in sixth if they win in Perth and will also climb above England if the victory margin exceeds 15 points.

DID YOU KNOW…?

• Cape Town-born No 8 Tiaan Strauss was the first fully fledged Springbok to play Test rugby for Australia, having switched his allegiance in the late 1990s. He scored a hat-trick off the bench on his debut for the Wallabies against Ireland in 1999.

• Australia and South Africa play for the Mandela Challenge Plate whenever they meet outside of Rugby World Cups.

Wallaby starting XV: 15 Tom Wright, 14 Max Jorgensen, 13 Len Ikitau, 12 Hunter Paisami, 11 Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii; 10 Ben Donaldson, 9 Ryan Lonergan; 8 Harry wilson (capt), 7 Fraser McReight, 6 Rob Valetini; 5 Jeremy Williams, 4 Josh Canham; 3 Allan Alaalatoa, 2 Brandon Paenga-Amosa, 1 Angus Bell. Replacements: 16 Billy Pollard, 17 Aidan Ross, 18 Taniela Tupou, 19 Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, 20 Tom Hooper, 21 Carlo Tizzano, 22 Tate McDermott, 23 Harry Potter.

Springbok starting XV: 15 Aphelele Fassi, 14 Edwill van der Merwe, 13 Canan Moodie, 12 Andre Esterhuizen (capt), 11 Ethan Hooker; 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Herschel Jantjies; 8 Marco van Staden, 7 Elrigh Louw, 6 Paul de Villiers; 5 Franco Mostert, 4 Eben Etzebeth; 3 Zachary Porthen, 2 Johan Grobbelaar, 1 Jan-Hendrik Wessels. Replacements: 16 Malcolm Marx, 17 Ox Nche, 18 Wilco Louw, 19 Lood de Jager, 20 Jasper Wiese, 21 Morne van den Berg, 22 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 23 Quan Horn.

Australia v South Africa - Sunday @ Optus Stadium, Perth - 11.45am (SAST)

Referee: Andrea Piardi (FIR)

Assistant Referees: Ben O'Keeffe (NZR), James Doleman (NZR)

Television Match Official: Matteo Liperini (FIR)