A big pack and even bigger pre-match talk from the South Africans has counted for little on the field as a red-hot Australia silenced the Springboks with a 30-12 Test rugby win at Telstra Stadium.

Much was made of the monster 919kg South African eight and coach Jake White's snipes about the opposition in the game's lead-up but it proved irrelevant as the Wallabies ran in five tries to nil.

The win keeps Australia's hopes of taking out the Nelson Mandela Challenge Plate - last held in 2002 and won by South Africa - alive, with the return match to be held in Johannesburg in two weeks time.

The Springboks were kept in the match by a much more committed second half and the accurate kicking of fullback Percy Montgomery who bagged four penalty goals, but the visitors rarely threatened Australia's line in attack.

While there were no cards handed out there were a couple of unsavoury incidents, with South African flanker Schalk Burger hitting Australian No.8 David Lyons across the jaw in a high tackle, De Wet Barry involved in what looked to be a deliberate stomp on Mat Rogers and Wallabies second rower Nathan Sharpe complaining of a possible eye gouge.

Wallabies five-eighth Stephen Larkham also took a shot at replacement Albert Van Den Bergh late in the match.

But when it came to running rugby there was only one winner.

Larkham was the maestro again in another man-of-the-match performance, scoring the first try and having a hand and foot in two of the others.

"Five tries to nil in a Test match is a pretty telling statistic," Wallabies coach Eddie Jones said.

"He (Larkham) had an outstanding game - look, he was incredible. At 31 years of age and at the end of the game he's still making line breaks and I really believe he can get better.

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