AAP | August 24, 2008

CAN the current Australian side be as a good as the side which last won on South African soil in 2000? Ask Stirling Mortlock in a year or two.

The skipper is the only player left from an Australian side which held the World Cup, Bledisloe Cup and, with a victory in Durban that year, the Tri-Nations title simultaneously.

Mortlock also sealed the victory in both 2000, with a last minute sideline goal, and in the drought-breaking 27-15 win with a determined run to the tryline in the 68th minute.

"It's chalk and cheese at the moment," Mortlock said of the two Wallaby sides.

"I feel very honoured to have been part of that era where pretty much every trophy there was to win we got our hands on, whereas at the moment we're a group that is starting hopefully on a journey that is very productive.

"But it's only sort of the beginning for this group and I think maybe if you ask that question in a year or two's time we'll hopefully give you a positive answer."

Mortlock said the two Durban clashes had been completely different, too.

"Other than late in the game when we let them back in, we had a fair bit of control throughout the whole game so it was slightly different to 2000," he said.

"I think 2000 was more of an arm wrestle the whole match."

The big centre celebrated hard after his try, which took Australia out to a 15-point buffer after they had allowed the Springboks to score and get back into it two minutes earlier.

"I probably lost my composure a tiny bit but that was just because I was pretty dirty on myself with what I did a few minutes before to let them score," he said.

"So it was a square-up so far as I was concerned."

Mortlock said the feeling at the end of an eight-year drought in the Republic was hard to describe.

"We've come over here so many times and got so close," he said.

"It's been a constant place where we faced disappointment on disappointment, so to finally get the monkey off our back is just great."

Aussie rock band Hunters and Collectors' 'Holy Grail' blared from the Australian dressing room, and the Wallabies can now win their first Tri-Nations series since 2001 by beating New Zealand in Brisbane.

They will first face South Africa again in Johannesburg, where they haven't won for 45 years, next Saturday.

"We are competing for the Tri-Nations and it is a seriously tough competition," Mortlock said.

"You've only got to look at the games so far to see that and our mindset is hopefully to get up for the challenge next week.

"If we do that then that might be an opportunity for us a couple of weeks after that."