The Barbarians were just to strong for the second string South Africa side who they met at a cold Twickenham on Saturday, though the game never reached the heights of flowing rugby the 30,000 plus fans had hoped for. The Barbarians stormed into a 19-3 half time lead thanks to Drew Mitchell with two tries and James O’Connor one as the Aussie and All Blacks backs cut loose.
South Africa needed to restore pride in the second period and they did this as they hit back through Odwa Ndungane. The Baa-Baas answered this with Quintin Geldenhuys going over in the corner to restore the invitational side’s 14-point lead. But it was the Boks who finished stronger as Bakkies Botha and Bandise Maku scored late tries. To give us the final score of:
Barbarians 26-20 South Africa
Scorers
Barbarians
Tries: Mitchell 2, O’Connor, Geldenhuys Cons: O’Connor 3
South Africa
Tries: Ndungane, Botha, Bandise Con: Jantjies Pen: Jantjies
Teams
Barbarians: O’Connor, Rokocoko, Ashley-Cooper, Nonu, Mitchell, Giteau, Genia, Perugini, Moore, Tialata, van Zyl, Jack, So’oialo, Williams, Bourke.
Replacements: Rabeni for Rokocoko (65), Donald for Nonu (64), Ellis for Genia (49), Mealamu for Moore (41), Yapp for Tialata (64), Geldenhuys for So’oialo (49), Braid for Bourke (22).
South Africa: Lambie, Ndungane, Jacobs, A. Strauss, Mvovo, Jantjies, Hougaard, Oosthuizen, A. Strauss, van der Linde, Botha, Hargreaves, Alberts, Smith, Kankowski.
Replacements: McLeod for A. Strauss (64), Aplon for Jantjies (68), Mtawarira for Oosthuizen (46), Maku for A. Strauss (60), van der Merwe for Hargreaves (41), Daniel for Kankowski (55).
Not Used: Kruger.
Att: 31,318
Ref: Pascal Gauzere (France).