Australia beat South Africa 26-3 in their opening match of the Women's Rugby World Cup in Paris on Friday.
The Wallaroos' led 18-0 after 23 minutes and were up 21-3 at halftime before the South Africans regathered in the second half.
Coach Paul Verrell was satisfied with the result.
"It was great that we played a strong patient match today in order to get the win," he said.
"After such a strong start South Africa worked their way back into the match so I was impressed with how we kept our focus and maintained our defensive structures.
"Our second half was not as strong as our first so we will have a look at where we can improve and look ahead to our next match against Wales on Tuesday."
Captain Shannon Parry agreed: "We knew it was going to be a tough match against South Africa but I feel that we left some points out there on the paddock.
"We'll take the win today and move on to focus on our match against Wales."
Australia's points came from tries to Sharni Williams, Ashleigh Hewson and Tricia Brown while Hewson converted one try and kicked three penalties.
South Africa had a lone penalty kicked by Tayla Kinsey.
In other results, New Zealand hammered Kazakhstan 79-5 and next play Ireland who beat the United States 23-17.
England also had a lop-sided result, 65-3 over Samoa, and France beat Wales 26-0.
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