Australia opened their World Rugby U20 Championship campaign with a stirring 35-11 comeback victory over Georgia in Cape Town on Saturday, but it came at a cost, with promising NSW Waratahs prop Jack Barrett leaving the field injured.
After trailing early in the second half, Australia piled on five tries and 29 unanswered points to claim a valuable bonus point win.
The victory came despite losing props Barrett and Tevita Alatini to injury during the game, and playing 20 minutes with 14 men after lock Harvey Cordukes was red-carded.
"(The second half) was much better from the lads. A bit more patient, we built phases and kept applying pressure," Australia U20 captain Toby Macpherson said.
In a frustrating opening stanza to the contest, the TMO intervened on three occasions - overturning two Australian tries and issuing a red card to Cordukes for a passive high shot.
It was Cordukes who thought he'd opened the scoring for Australia after 11 minutes, only for the try to be belatedly ruled out for foul play several phases earlier.
Instead, it was Georgia who grabbed the first points of the game with flanker Luka Suluashvili plunging over on the back of a rolling maul.
Australia got on the board after 18 minutes courtesy of a penalty goal from flyhalf Harry McLaughlin-Phillips.
With Barrett stretchered from the field with a lower leg injury, the setbacks began to stack up for Australia as Cordukes saw red in the 25th minute for his high shot.
Another McLaughlin-Phillips penalty goal made it 8-6 before the Australians thought they'd taken the lead with a try to Waratahs hooker Bryn Edwards.
However, once again the TMO intervened to ensure Georgia maintained their two-point lead at half-time.
Georgia extended that advantage out to 11-6 with another penalty goal shortly after the break however it would be their last points of the game.
After a sustained period camped in the opposition 22, Australia finally claimed their first try as winger Ronan Leahy dived over in the 51st minute and McLaughlin-Phillips nailed the sideline conversion to take the lead.
Prop Lington Ieli was next to crash over from close range and suddenly Australia led 20-11 with 20 minutes to play.
Coming off the bench, Angus Staniforth - nephew of former Wallaby Scott Staniforth - bagged himself a late double with two diving efforts out wide.
Centre Jarrah McLeod, who ran the hard lines all game, also got his reward with a try off a deft McLaughlin-Phillips kick.
Australia will face Italy in their next pool game at 7pm SAST Thursday 4 July / 3am AEST Friday 5 July.
Every game of the U20 Championship is available live, free and on-demand on RugbyPass TV.
Australia U20 35 (TRIES: Staniforth 2, McLeod, Leahy, Ieli; CONS: McLaughlin-Phillips 2; Pens: McLaughlin-Phillips) def Georgia U20 11 (TRIES: Suluashvili; CONS: Tsirekidze 2)
