The Wallabies have continued to show their growth and determination but will be left to rue what could have been after they pushed the Springboks to the very limits but failed to find the winning edge to topple the world champions for a second time in another bruising encounter in Cape Town.
In the contest throughout the 80 minutes, the Wallabies threw plenty of shots at the Springboks, and landed several blows, but there would be no record-breaking win for Australia after costly errors and questionable captaincy decisions saw South Africa hold tough in the closing passages to retain the Nelson Mandella Plate and bounce back from last week's shock defeat.
While the loss will "leave a bitter taste in the mouth" according to Wallabies back-rower Tom Hooper, they will leave the African continent with plenty of pride after they demonstrated their mettle for a second week and withstood a battering that saw fullback Tom Wright and firebrand Nic White scratched from the game within the opening 10 minutes, before Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii failed to return to the pitch after the halftime break.
"Losing both him [Nic White] and Tom Wright, who was outstanding last week, just caused a little bit of a reshuffle, and that early in the game it does destabilise you a little bit and the Springboks got away to a good lead in that first half," Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt said after the match.
"But I thought we were really competitive and, you know, in the second half I think we won the second half, not by enough to get quite back into the game. But you know, 23-22 and a conversion to come I really felt that the players had done a fantastic job to roll their sleeves up and get back into the game.
"And we've got a good deputy and Tate McDermott, but then he hurt his ankle, about 20-25 minutes in, and so he was hobbling a little bit as well which didn't help either.
"I was massively proud of the way the players stayed in the game after losing those guys and then losing Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii at half time. We had young Tane Edmed, who hasn't played for us since Ireland last year, and he had to come in and play 12. I was delighted for them that they actually patched themselves together and we're still very competitive and still made some nice clean line breaks as well."
The Springboks gave exactly what they promised, and everything the Wallabies had been prepared for, with No.8 Kwagga Smith and lock RG Snyman leading the charge from the front, smashing away at the Wallabies breakdown and dominating the contact area for much of the match.
A late inclusion to the starting side, the No. 8 played a near perfect game and was the best on the field for the Boks. He was busy in defence finishing with 14 tackles -- bettered only by Wallabies captain Fraser McReight with 17 -- while he remained a nuisance at the breakdown, capping off his huge shift with a try in the 34th minute to give his side a strong lead heading into the break.
Meanwhile, Handre Polard and Grant Williams executed the perfect game plan, endlessly firing off contestable kicks to the edge, with Canan Moodie and Cheslin Kolbe finding the advantage in the aerial battle, making it clear the Boks did not want to play in their own half. And it worked for much of the contest, with South Africa constantly regaining possession and pressuring the Wallabies' defensive line.
The Springboks simply played the heavy conditions better in the first half as they starved the Wallabies of options in attack and constantly pushed them back with their kicking game. Their first try came off the back of an impressive Williams box kick that pinned the Wallabies back, before a Polard kick-pass to Moodie saw him skip over the line. The Boks were more than happy to play without the ball, playing a much different game to what we saw last weekend.
"It felt like we made more line breaks, we created dangerous situations, but we didn't finish them well enough and that's a credit to a Springbok side who put a lot of pressure on defensively and I think they had 35 kicks in play, they certainly peppered us with balls in the air and balls behind us," Schmidt said.
"It wasn't something we didn't expect, but losing both Joseph, who's very good in the air and Tom Wright, probably didn't help us much. But then it's got to give belief to Andrew Kellaway who came good back there, and there's a sensational take from Tane Edmed at one stage, who had to come off the bench and play 12.
"There's some positive things that we can pick out of it and positive things that we can build on."
That's not to say South Africa had it all their own way.
The Wallabies fired plenty of shots of their own. Rob Valetini was powerful in his return to the line-up following a calf injury, bashing his way through and bending the Springboks line on multiple occasions, while McReight was a leader from the front with his huge defensive display and Max Jorgensen once again demonstrated his attacking threat after he scored his sixth career try to close the gap to just three points.
But it was debutant Corey Toole who stood brightest for the battered side, producing a near perfect showing in his first outing in the gold jersey. Australian rugby's fastest man was on the board within the opening minutes after he read a White grubber kick perfectly to scoop up the ball and dive over in the eighth minute. He broke the line several times and slipped multiple defenders to make 55 carry metres, while he was admirable under the high ball.
"He's amazing," Hooper told Stan Sport after the match. "The road runner on the edge there. He showed he's up to this level, didn't he?
"He's an amazing player, he's a competitor, he's a scrawny little bugger, but he's really strong and he fights through everything. I'm really proud of him, we've been playing a lot of footy together since the age of about 17, so couldn't be prouder of him."
With both sides scoring three-tries apiece and sharing 50 percent of possession and territory, the stats show they were split down the middle, with the Wallabies even beating out the Springboks in run metres and line breaks with less turn over ball and fewer penalties. But it's the small margins that proved to be the costliest.
Trailing by one-point 72 minutes gone, an Andrew Kellaway knock-on 15 metres from his own line and right in front of the posts welcomed the Springboks right back into the contest after the Wallabies had been dominating the proceedings. Minutes later Eben Etzebeth would bash his way over the line to push the scores out once more.
Meanwhile, James O'Connor's game will be remembered for his missed conversion to give the Wallabies the lead and two missed penalties late in the piece, despite playing yet another strong game while his generals fell around him.
Questions will be asked of McReight's decision to go to touch instead of points after the Wallabies fumbled two attacking raids midway through opening 40, before he chose to go conservative with the game on the line and O'Connor's radar failed them.
But hindsight is 20/20 and McReight demonstrated Australia's ambitious and determined mindset to put turn the screws on the Springboks whenever they had the chance.
If there is to be a silver lining from this display, it's that this Wallabies unit was far from perfect tonight, and given just how close they came to downing the Springboks once again, without two of their sharpest attacking weapons, it should give this team, and their fans, plenty of hope.