Wallabies coach Les Kiss believes calmness was the difference as his side celebrates a remarkable 42-38 win over the Springboks in Perth.
The game had it all as the Aussies defied several men in the bin and staged a late comeback to win.
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At one stage, they were down to 11 players as a breakdown in comms meant TMO decisions came via mobile phone.
Harry Wilson, Ryan Lonergan, Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii and Hunter Paisami all spent time off for yellow cards.
Each one sent Australia further into trouble as the Springboks looked to run down a 42-17 lead.
But the Wallabies hung tough, frustrating the world champions enough to slow their momentum and close out the win when it mattered.
"I don't think many have seen [a finish like that]. It was bizarre, for sure," Kiss said of the last period, with the last 10 minutes of the game taking close to 25 minutes in real-time amid the stoppages.
"There was a real calmness in the coaching box for the majority of it. We were asking a lot of questions about what was happening. We were trying to get messages down the sideline to just get an idea where things were. But in the end, the boys found a way.
"The pleasing thing for me was that the group out there on the pitch, they were down to the low numbers that we were [and] there was a nice calmness, building a bit of clarity and focus about what they had to do next.
"Hearing that back and seeing how they looked and felt in those tough moments, that's incredibly pleasing."
Kiss was quick to celebrate the opening hour of action and rightfully so, as the Wallabies pieced apart the Springboks' defence.
They made nine line breaks in the 70 minutes before the quartet of cards, triple the Springboks, whilst the 42 points scored is the most the Springboks have conceded since becoming back-to-back world champions.
" Tonight I think the truth is that we delivered a lot of what we planned to but I think we managed the game better than we had in the last two or three games where we put ourselves under pressure at different times unnecessarily," Kiss believes.
"I thought tonight the game management also worked well for us and our aerial game was pretty strong as well.
"The growth we're getting is absolutely brilliant. Each step of the way we're just taking little bits of learning, little bits of growth, stacking on top of each other."
