The world champions ran in seven tries, with winger Jongi Nokwe crossing for four of them, to provide some much-needed respite for their under-fire coach Peter de Villiers.

De Villiers and captain Victor Matfield were roundly booed by the Durban crowd following their 27-15 defeat to the Wallabies last weekend, but the home fans had nothing to complain about as the Springboks eclipsed their previous best 61-22 Tri-Nations win against the Aussies in 1997 at Loftus Versfeld.

The size of the victory underlined the Springboks’ dangerous status under De Villiers’ attack-minded game plan, which came in for criticism during the week, as they finally found the passes to stick when they needed to against a Wallaby side with one-eye on the Bledisloe Cup and Tri-Nations decider against New Zealand in Brisbane on September 13.

With the home side under intense pressure to perform it was not surprising that they looked a more determined bunch, even though Matt Giteau opened the scoring with an early penalty.

In the Springboks’ first foray into the Wallaby half, the normally rock solid Stirling Mortlock let a pass through his hands on his own line and a bad clearance launched another wave of attacks with lock Andries Bekker eventually finding a massive gap to go through and score the first try.

The Boks forced a second mistake in the Wallabies’ quarter three minutes later, and with quick thinking by Fourie du Preez the ball was sent wide for Nokwe to run in at the corner.

The pressure was taking its toll on the Wallabies as Lote Tuqiri first dropped a ball with an open tryline ahead of him and then the Boks stole a line-out in Wallaby territory, with Pierre Spies just losing the ball as he was going over the line.

From the ensuing scrum the Boks powered their way forward forcing a turnover and demolishing the Wallaby scrum with the wide ball finding Nokwe again to canter in for his second try.

Nokwe got a third before half-time as a mis-directed throw-in fell perfectly for Schalk Burger, who bashed his way forward before passing to Jean de Villiers, who in turn sent the ball wide to Nokwe to complete the hat-trick.

The Boks began where they left off after the interval, striking the first blow after a telling linebreak by De Villiers. Adrian Jacobs received the offload, then went outside Peter Hynes for a breathtaking score.

The home side gave Nokwe another reason to smile when a Jantjes grubber found Odwa Ndungane who gifted his opposite wing his fourth score of the match.

Nokwe was injured in scoring and received a standing ovation as he was taken from the field on a stretcher, ending a memorable 55 minutes.

Proof that it was not the Australians’ day came when Giteau intercepted to run the length of the field, only to be adjudged offside.

But there was finally some Wallaby joy when Drew Mitchell scored in the corner minutes later.

Ruan Pienaar scored an individual try from the set phase as he cut through the Aussie defensive line with ease, beating two tackles with a beautiful in and out before Ndungane took them past 50 two minutes before time to complete the Wallabies’ day of woe.