Leicester Tigers quartet Julián Montoya, Matías Moroni, Marco van Staden and Jasper Wiese suffered defeat in their respective fixtures during the opening week of the 2021 Rugby Championship in Australia.

Argentina pair Montoya and Moroni went down in the Los Pumas 39-0 defeat to the All Blacks in the first of the double-header matchday on the Gold Coast.

Moroni, in his first game back after a minor leg injury saw him sidelined for a fortnight, was a threat in attack and menace in defence before replaced after 50 minutes.

Meanwhile skipper Montoya, the Argentine side's best on the night, was at his busy-best in a physical display in the front-row for an hour before being taken off in the 61st minute.

In the second of the back-to-back matches, Australia overcame South Africa with an after-the-siren penalty-goal to seal a two point, 26-28 victory.

Despite being played in their own backyard, the Wallabies were in the unusual position of being the away side in Australia. However, with a vocal support being them came firing out of the blocks and take an eight-point lead in to the break at half-time. 

Leicester duo van Staden and Wiese were deployed from the 'Boks bench early in the second-half, with the pair causing plenty of headaches in attack and defence for the Australians as the world champions mounted a comeback. 

However, ill-discipline and issues in defence meant it was too big a hill to climb for South Africa as they registered just their third Test loss since in almost three years.

Both sides meet again in the next round of the 2021 tournament, next Saturday (September 18) in Brisbane, before a final fortnight of games see the All Blacks take on the Springboks and Wallabies the Los Pumas to close out this season's competition.