With the world collapsing around them, a once-healthy lead suddenly on life support and players being sin-binned in droves, the Wallabies could have folded as the Springboks closed in on a miracle win at Optus Stadium.

But after surviving one of the wildest finishes in Test rugby history, several Wallabies stars have hailed their resolve and calm in the eye of the storm as they held on to secure a famous 42-38 win in bizarre circumstances.

It may not have been quite as startling as their drought-breaking comeback win at Ellis Park last year, but it was every bit as dramatic as the Wallabies watched a 25-point lead dissipate in the final 12 minutes of the game — which took almost 24 minutes to complete.

In that space of time, captain Harry Wilson, scrum-half Ryan Lonergan, cross-code star Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii and centre Hunter Paisami were all yellow carded, leaving Australia with just 11 men as South Africa piled on three tries in the blink of an eye to reduce the margin to four points.

For good measure, there were also three disallowed tries in that same period as referees battled communication issues and had to twice use a mobile phone on field in one of the most chaotic ends to a Test match imaginable, with the game finally ending in extra time after South Africa obstructed a Wallabies defender.

“The last 10 minutes there was a multitude of different things we were dealing with. Men down, defending off different set piece launches, scrums, line-outs. We were just trying to bust ass,” Wallabies full-back and man of the match Tom Wright said.

“You can have a plan until you get punched in the face. We certainly weren’t expecting to play with 11, you don’t expect to play with 14 or 13 and 12.

“We’ve got to be better at dealing with all those things around our discipline, but you certainly can’t fault our effort and how much we put into defending our try-line, making it as difficult as we did for them to be able to score points late in the game.

“They’re the best team in the world, they’re hard to stop when you’ve got 15 on the field. When you’ve got less than them, you’ve got to show a bit of desire, a little want and you’ve got to execute it — being frazzled and yelling at each other doesn’t make it much easier.”

With skipper Wilson in the sin-bin, Western Force lock Jeremy Williams was thrust into the role of stand-in captain for the first time in his international career and Wright hailed his impact throughout the grandstand finish.

“The boys have enormous respect for Jez because of the way he plays and the way he carries himself, no nonsense,” he said.

“The boys would do anything for him and for him to step into the furnace arguably when it’s at its hottest, with the least amount of players you can play with, the guys got right in behind him.”

The typically humble Williams praised Wright and fly-half Ben Donaldson for their own leadership capabilities late.

“It’s not something I’ve experienced before, but there were heaps of guys out there I could lean on,” he said.

“You’ve got to problem solve on the run, and guys like Donno and Wrighty were really leading in that space. They’re quite experienced, and it was awesome for them to lead us and problem solve on the run and get us out of sticky situations.

“The voice they have on the field and the experience that they have, in the trying times out there they really led us around.”

Wilson was quick to apologise post-game for his own indiscretion which saw him only return to the field of play in the waning seconds of the match and said he was over the moon with the passion and grit his teammates showed.

“(Coach) Les (Kiss) is real big on that care for the jersey, the care for the person beside you, and geez, the boy showed that. Versing the Springboks with 11 men down and every try the boys made them work, which took more time off the clock, which ultimately got us a victory in the end,” he said.

“When you let your team down it always hurts, especially when we were in such a strong position when I did that, so I was hurting there on the sideline, but I just love the way the boys scrapped for each other and the care for the jersey.”