Boks beat gusty Samoa

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa ran in five tries to win a bruising test match with Samoa 35-8 on Saturday.

The Springboks used their entire bench as the Samoans put up fierce resistance with wing Ashwin Willemse, centre Wayne Julies, scrumhalf Enrico Januarie and flanker Luke Watson all leaving the field through injury. South Africa enjoyed a considerable advantage in the tight phases, especially the scrums, with Scottish referee Malcolm Changleng penalising Samoa regularly and eventually yellow-carding prop Justin Va’a shortly before halftime.But the inexperienced Springbok backline made handling errors and Samoa defended well, captain and hooker John Smit only scoring the first try for South Africa after 19 minutes.Slick passing by inside centre Wayne Julies sent wing JP Pietersen and fullback Francois Steyn over the line for a 23-3 lead at the break.Replacement flanker Pedrie Wannenburg, who came on for controversial selection Watson after 50 minutes, and replacement fullback Percy Montgomery scored in the second half as Samoa competed fiercely and gave the Springboks a tough workout.Wing Pietersen set up Wannenburg’s try with a scything break.Flyhalf Derick Hougaard succeeded with a conversion and two penalties and kicked superbly out of hand, while Montgomery converted his own try.Samoa’s points came from a late try by wing Alesana Tuilagi and an early penalty by fullback Gavin Williams.The Springboks, who made 13 changes for the test and were then struck by injuries, battled for rhythm as the Samoans tackled with typical ferocity and also ran the ball with power.* Meanwhile, France coach Bernard Laporte said his battered young team had learnt a painful but valuable lesson about the reality of international rugby following their record 61-10 loss to New Zealand.Laporte selected an inexperienced squad for the two-match tour because it clashed with the French club championship and the result was a massacre.New Zealand won the first match 42-11 then Saturday’s second test by 51 points to hand the French their heaviest defeat in 101 years of international rugby.* Despite successive big defeats to the Junior All Blacks and Australia, Fiji coach Ilie Tabua still has his sights set on a quarter-final berth in the upcoming World Cup.The Wallabies and Fiji are drawn in the same pool in France and got something of a feel for each other in Saturday’s Test here.The home side won 49-0 but both teams fielded combinations far different from what can be expected at the World Cup.* Fullback Federico Serra scored a personal-best 19 points to lead Argentina to a 24-6 victory over Italy in an international rugby test on Saturday.The victory in the World Cup warm-up boosted Argentina’s record to 9-1-4 against Italy since their first match in 1978.Argentina was without injured kicker Federico Todeschini, sidelined with a muscle pull after a recent two-test sweep against Ireland.Nampa-Reuters and APSouth Africa enjoyed a considerable advantage in the tight phases, especially the scrums, with Scottish referee Malcolm Changleng penalising Samoa regularly and eventually yellow-carding prop Justin Va’a shortly before halftime.But the inexperienced Springbok backline made handling errors and Samoa defended well, captain and hooker John Smit only scoring the first try for South Africa after 19 minutes.Slick passing by inside centre Wayne Julies sent wing JP Pietersen and fullback Francois Steyn over the line for a 23-3 lead at the break.Replacement flanker Pedrie Wannenburg, who came on for controversial selection Watson after 50 minutes, and replacement fullback Percy Montgomery scored in the second half as Samoa competed fiercely and gave the Springboks a tough workout.Wing Pietersen set up Wannenburg’s try with a scything break.Flyhalf Derick Hougaard succeeded with a conversion and two penalties and kicked superbly out of hand, while Montgomery converted his own try.Samoa’s points came from a late try by wing Alesana Tuilagi and an early penalty by fullback Gavin Williams.The Springboks, who made 13 changes for the test and were then struck by injuries, battled for rhythm as the Samoans tackled with typical ferocity and also ran the ball with power.* Meanwhile, France coach Bernard Laporte said his battered young team had learnt a painful but valuable lesson about the reality of international rugby following their record 61-10 loss to New Zealand.Laporte selected an inexperienced squad for the two-match tour because it clashed with the French club championship and the result was a massacre.New Zealand won the first match 42-11 then Saturday’s second test by 51 points to hand the French their heaviest defeat in 101 years of international rugby.* Despite successive big defeats to the Junior All Blacks and Australia, Fiji coach Ilie Tabua still has his sights set on a quarter-final berth in the upcoming World Cup.The Wallabies and Fiji are drawn in the same pool in France and got something of a feel for each other in Saturday’s Test here.The home side won 49-0 but both teams fielded combinations far different from what can be expected at the World Cup.* Fullback Federico Serra scored a personal-best 19 points to lead Argentina to a 24-6 victory over Italy in an international rugby test on Saturday.The victory in the World Cup warm-up boosted Argentina’s record to 9-1-4 against Italy since their first match in 1978.Argentina was without injured kicker Federico Todeschini, sidelined with a muscle pull after a recent two-test sweep against Ireland.Nampa-Reuters and AP