Springbok coach Peter de Villiers was a worried man after the opening exchanges of South Africa's Tri-Nations victory over Australia in Pretoria.

The world champions, who headed into the game on a four-match losing streak, eventually ran out 44-31 winners, but not before they were given a mighty scare from the visitors.

They fell 14-0 behind inside five minutes after converted tries by Will Genia and James O'Connor, before mounting a recovery that helped them to a first win of the competition.

"I was worried when we gave them those tries, especially in the state we were in, the confidence being low," the Springbok coach said.

"So to give them a start like that it took really a lot of heart and character to come back and win a game a like this."

After the below-par opening, Juan Smith and Gurthro Steenkamp cut the deficit either side of a second O'Connor effort, before Dean Mumm and Pierre Spies exchanged tries to hand the visitors a 28-24 half-time lead.

But the Wallabies could only manage three points after the break as Frans Steyn and JP Pietersen crossed to seal a hard-fought victory.

The game also marked the 100th cap for veteran lock and vice-captain Victor Matfield on his home ground Loftus Versfeld, and De Villiers said the Boks dug deep for their team-mate.

"I think the guys wanted to do it for themselves, do it for Victor and do it for their country," he added.

"So that on its own was obviously enough motivation for them to go out there and play."

De Villers, whose side were edged out 29-22 at the death by New Zealand seven days ago, also praised his side for their determination.

"They felt bad at half-time, but they weren't down," he added.

"They knew that they messed up in the first half, but they also believed they could still do it and you saw the turnaround after that.

"That (guts) is what the team is made up of. I think now we can build on this game, use it as a foundation, working towards the World Cup."

De Villiers described the win as a culmination of hard work off the pitch coming into effect on it.

"We worked a lot over the past three weeks to reverse the whole thing and last week we came very close but when we got that try from Juan (Smith), we realised we can play and in the last 70 minutes the score was 37-10 in our favour."

A nine-try match reflected the frantic tempo and De Villiers was satisfied with the work of his substitutes.

"All the reserves who came on did what we wanted from them. Last week they came on and they did not have that impact so it is good to see the change," he said.

Matfield described the home support as astonishing.

"It has been an unbelievable career and now playing my 100th Test here in front of my own people at Loftus is still unbelievable," said Matfield, widely regarded as the best line-out jumper in the world.

But he warned against complacency.

"We have achieved nothing yet as we still want to win the Nelson Mandela Cup and a lot of hard work lies ahead this week," he said.

Springbok skipper and hooker Smit also highlighted that the green and gold are a far cry from a team capable of retaining the World Cup in New Zealand next year.

"This week the message was not to do it for Victor but to do it for each other and to be able to celebrate a victory afterwards," said Smit.

"I don't think we would have scripted the beginning as we wanted to be a lot more accurate and took 10 to 15 minutes to get things going."