Rugby: McKenzie forced to 'dumb down' for Wallabies

Ewen McKenzie would not lament the absence of noted enforcers nor offer any excuses. Photo / AP

Frustrated coach Ewen McKenzie will look to "dumb down" the Wallabies' game after an embarrassing record thumping by South Africa at their former Suncorp Stadium fortress.

The Springboks broke their Australian east coast hoodoo in style by overpowering Australia with a record victory in Brisbane on Saturday night.

The Wallabies slumped to their fourth straight test loss - their worst streak in four years - and third under McKenzie in a bitterly disappointing display in front of 43,715 stunned fans.

Never before had Australia lost to the Springboks in seven meetings at the old Lang Park but that unbeaten record was gone with 20 minutes left.

The Boks dominated the under-strength home pack in the scrum, the collisions and the breakdown to lay the platform for a four-tries-to-nil drubbing - their biggest win against the Wallabies on Australian soil.

McKenzie would not lament the absence of noted enforcers James Horwill, Scott Higginbotham, Tatafu Polota-Nau, Wycliff Palu and David Pocock, nor offer any excuses.

He instead blamed poor execution in attack and unacceptable errors that hamstrung their expansive plans to run the visitors into the ground with an uptempo game.

"The bottom line is we made too many errors to win," he said.

"In the end we have to say why are we making the errors? Either we're playing a game that is too complicated or the skill level doesn't match it. So we'll go back and have a look. We'll dumb it down a bit and make it a bit simpler.

"That would be disappointing. But we'll look at the whole gamut."

South Africa's win more than doubled the margin of their previous Aussie best - 18-6 at the SCG in 1971 - and also gave them their first win on the east coast in 14 matches since professional rugby in 1996.

South Africa 38
Australia 12

- AAP