A youthful and relatively inexperienced South Africa trounced a star-studded World XV 32-7 at the Walkers stadium in Leicester on Sunday.
Having led 10-0 at the break, South Africa scored three tries in the second half to finish their end-of-year tour with their second win from four outings.
Matt Perry, the England full-back, said it was teenager Francois Steyn who shut the World XV out of the game.
PHOTO: AFP
"Steyn's boot killed us," he said after being substituted in the second half. "He has a massive boot on him for a 19-year-old and he kept kicking it into the corners. We couldn't get our hands on the ball. They played clever rugby."
Steyn, rather modestly, said the win would give the 'Boks "plenty of confidence ahead of the World Cup" next year. "I just hope," he added, "that I'll be lucky enough to get selected."
The World XV struggled for any coherence, having come together, from literally all over the world, earlier in the week.
After a period of aimless kicking from both sides, Wynand Olivier broke spectacularly down the left flank before off-loading to Jaco Pretorius.
Pretorius came within centimeters of the line before he was dragged down. Ruan Pienaar dug the ball out and flicked it to Wikus van Heerden, who crashed over for the opening score.
The World XV continued to make little impact and it was South Africa who scored again, this time through Pienaar slotting a penalty.
The break drew to a close Chiliboy Ralapelle's stint as the first black captain of a senior South African rugby side before fellow hooker Gary Botha took over the skipper's armband.
"It's a great honor and a privilege to have [been] captain," said the 20-year-old Blue Bull. "But we should definitely have more points on the board. I reckon this half we'll get it right and start scoring."
Ralapelle was proved almost immediately right. After Steyn, back on the field from the blood-bin, kicked his first penalty and then Pienaar stepped inside Lawrence Dallglio and tore down field.
He passed inside to Albert van den Berg, who showed remarkable pace to keep up with Pienaar, who then stretched his long arm over the tryline. Van den Berg popped again with eight minutes on the clock to stretch over for his second try.
Three minutes later Drew Mitchell finally scored for the World XV in the left hand corner. Rossouw immediately canceled that score with a try in the final minute.
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