Eddie Jones loses his cool with SA journalist after Bok thrashing

The Springboks handed Jones his first defeat in his second stint as Wallabies head coach, with Kurt-Lee Arendse scoring a hat-trick at Loftus Versfeld. Pieter-Steph du Toit grabbed another try while the Boks were awarded two penalty tries.

In the build-up to the match, much was made of the Springboks' decision to split their squad and send players over to New Zealand for the round two clash against the All Blacks.

Before arriving in South Africa, Jones commented on the Boks resting several stars, saying: "What I am hoping for is their best team. I do not want to take down a half-baked Springboks side."

Fronting the media after the defeat to South Africa, Jones made no excuses for the defeat but took exception to a question from a local journalist.

Jones was asked: "Eddie, you expressed your disappointment in the week that you weren't playing the first-choice Springboks side. Is that a bit of a relief now?"

"South Africans are good at winning. You don't have to be a smart arse mate," Jones replied.

"We were well and truly beaten today by a Springboks side that old mate is calling the B-team, right? I never knew there was a Springboks side that was called the B-team."

After the press conference, Jones approached the reporter who had asked the questions and berated him.

"You don't have to be a smart arse, mate. You should have more respect, mate. I never said that, mate.

"I said we always want to play the best. Show some respect," he added before storming out.

Meanwhile, co-captain James Slipper said the Wallabies would learn a lot from the defeat and conceded that they were beaten by a better team on the day.

"There was an opportunity to come here and put in a game we were proud of, and to be fair, we just defended the entire second half, so you got to give credit to the Springboks," Slipper said.

"They put us under pressure, and we'll learn a lot from that.

"It's a tough start, but we've got a long year ahead of us. There's plenty to come, so we'll keep working hard."

The Wallabies will travel back to Sydney on Sunday and turn their attention to their clash with Argentina at CommBank Stadium on Saturday.