South crush North in Twickenham tsunami clash

LONDON - The Southern hemisphere ran in eight tries to thrash the Northern hemisphere 54-19 in the tsunami benefit match at Twickenham.

Australia's Chris Latham and Samoa skipper Semo Sititi grabbed two tries each on Saturday, while England's Andy Titterrell, Pat Sanderson and Italy winger Mirco Bergamasco scored the North's tries.

Even with the some of the best players in the world on the pitch, attacking intent was often let down by poor execution but it was all much enjoyed by a crowd of about 33,000.

The United Nations World Food Programme hope to receive more than $2 million from the match for their work in helping the people of the Indian Ocean rebuild their lives after the December 26 tsunami that killed up to 300,000 people.

Brian Lima's tackle on Italy winger Mirco Bergamasco in the first few minutes made it clear that although the match was in aid of charity, it would not be wholly friendly.

But it was not until the 12th minute that Lima set up the first try for All Black skipper Tana Umaga.

Poor defence was to blame for the huge gap that North skipper Lawrence Dallaglio charged through to give his fellow Englishman Titterrell the chance to score the first try for the Europeans.

Lima got his own name on the score sheet six minutes later with the simplest of sprints to the line but the North hit back straight away when Ulsterman Humphreys's cross-kick was batted back by Bergamasco and England flanker Sanderson was on hand to cross the line and reduce the South's lead to 14-12.

From then on all the scoring came from antipodeans with fullback Chris Latham ghosting through non-existent cover for one try and South Africa flanker Schalk Burger powering through the North backline for a second. All Black Andrew Mehrtens kicked both for a perfect four from four and a halftime lead of 28-12.

The second half was slow to light up and the trickle then torrent of replacements did not improve matters.

As Lima showed in the first half, the powerful Pacific islanders thrive on poor defence and Sititi got the first score of the half courtesy of a break by his fellow Samoan, lock Opeta Palepoi.

Bergamasco got one back for the North when Latham failed to judge how the ball would land but the Wallaby man of the match scored his second try of the game moments later, this time benefiting from the bounce after Mehrtens's cross-kick.

After England winger Ben Cohen spilled the ball over the try line, it was the South all the way with Springbok Jacque Fourie and Sititi again stretching the lead past the half century mark.

Teams:

North - 15-Chris Paterson (Scotland) (22-Mathew Tait (England), 57); 14-Mirco Bergamasco (Italy), 13-Ollie Smith (England), 12-Ceri Sweeney (Wales), 11-Ben Cohen (England); 10-David Humphreys (Ireland) (21-Mark Taylor (Wales), 53), 9-Gareth Cooper (Wales) (20-Mike Phillips (Wales), 41); 1-John Yapp (Wales) (17-Cedric Soulette (France), 50), 2-Andy Titterrell (England) (16-Raphael Ibanez (France), 57), 3-Chris Horsman, 4-Marco Bortolami (Italy), 5-Donncha O'Callaghan (Ireland), 6-Lawrence Dallaglio (England), 7-Pat Sanderson (England) (18-Jonathan Thomas (Wales), 48), 8-Simon Taylor (Scotland) (19-Eric Miller (Ireland), 48)

South: 15-Chris Latham (Australia); 14-Brian Lima (Samoa), 13-Jacques Fourie (South Africa), 12-Tana Umaga (New Zealand) (20-Thinus Delport (South Africa), 23), 11-Sireli Bobo (Fiji) (22-Shane Drahm (Australia), 68); 10-Andrew Mehrtens (New Zealand) 9-George Gregan (Australia), 8-Toutai Kefu (Australia) (18-Semo Sititi (Samoa), 48), 7-Phil Waugh (Australia), 6-Schalk Burger (South Africa), 5-Victor Matfield (South Africa), 4-Opeta Palepoi (Samoa) (19-Matt Mustchin (New Zealand, 77), 3-Kobus Visagie (South Africa) (17-Eusebio Guinazu (Argentina), 75), 2-John Smit (South Africa) (16-Ephraim Taukafa (Tonga), 77) 1-Carl Hoeft (New Zealand).

Referee: Paddy O'Brien

- REUTERS