Nienaber 'happy' and relieved as Boks finally break Aussie duck: '20% wins better than zero'

They had to endure their fair share of pain too, but Jacques Nienaber expressed immense satisfaction at his Springbok vintage finally breaking the side's curse on Australian soil.

Saturday's 24-8 victory in Sydney - incidentally South Africa's first in the city since 1993 - drew a line under a losing streak stretching to 2013 under no less than three different coaching regimes.

Nienaber himself endured three consecutive reverses before this morale-boosting intervention.

"It's the first time in 9 years that we've won here. From our side, it's obviously just a great result to win in Australia again," he said afterwards.

"Interestingly, as a core group we've played here 5 times and we've only our first now. The record here has been poor. I’m happy we could change that because 20% still looks better than 0%.

"I'm also really happy for the players, particularly the guys who were given opportunities in this game because they definitely took them."

The Boks got swiftly out of the blocks following the travails in Adelaide last week, showcasing a significantly higher level of intensity and, in stark contrast to the trip to South Australia, getting on the scoreboard first.

Nienaber attributed that to the team ruthlessly holding themselves against their own exacting standards, not that of outsiders.

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"We put a lot of internal pressure on ourselves in trying to get things right. I've mentioned in the past that we're quite transparent with the players so they know what the plan is," said the Bok coach.

"We've used 32 players in the last four games and with that comes a bit of risk. We needed some answers and the players gave us some.

"It's not like