Mallett points to vast divide between north and south

Barbarians 26 Sth Africa 20:NICK MALLETT, Italy's South African coach, believes the Northern Hemisphere countries have little hope of bridging the gap with the Southern Hemisphere before the World Cup next autumn. Mallett, speaking as the coach of a host of Australians and New Zealanders under the banner of the Barbarians who beat the Springboks on Saturday, believes there is still a vast divide between north and south.

“I’m even more convinced of it,” he said in his review of the November internationals. “If the Northern-Hemisphere sides can’t knock over South Africa, Australia and New Zealand at the end of their seasons when they are tired and not really looking forward to a tour, and all the Northern-Hemisphere sides are coming off three months of good preparation, getting ready for the Six Nations – they’re at their best – and you’ve got two wins out of I don’t know how many games . . . that’s not a lot.

“England probably played the best game they’ve ever played in their life against an Australian side that wasn’t at all expecting it. The next time they play they will expect England to play like that. And Scotland beating South Africa was far more a case of South Africa being off their game. If South Africa had played properly, like they did against England, they would have beaten Scotland easily.”

Of those southern giants the north are all lagging so far behind, South Africa are closest in sight. Peter de Villiers, their coach, claimed he was without 27 players on Saturday, which acts as some mitigation for their flat showing, but to those of us on the outside looking in South Africa’s tour has been pretty flat, even if they roused themselves against England.

De Villiers, though, talked up this past year, despite spending most of it fighting for his job – or perhaps because of it. “It has been a brilliant year, one of the best in my life,” he said. “The scoreboard wasn’t good for us but that was the only thing.

“We were blessed with all the injuries. If we hadn’t had them I might have overplayed some of the guys. Now we go to the World Cup with two scrumhalves who are equally good. If (Fourie du Preez) hadn’t been injured I wouldn’t have known that. So in the mess there were great messages.”

Drew Mitchell grabbed two opportunist first-half tries for the Barbarians as the Springboks, fielding only three of the side who started last weekend’s 21-11 victory over England, were run off their feet in the first half.

De Villers retained only winger Lwazi Mvovo, scorer of the second Springbok try which sealed England’s fate, lock Bakkies Botha and flanker Juan Smith, who led the side in the absence of the injured Victor Matfield. He said: “Today we lost the game but we won a lot in other respects.

“It wasn’t a Test match but it was a test to see how good we really are with our youngsters and our depth. We are really very happy where we stand.

“We had two regular starters in the team and to come back against these world stars they made a lot of yardage.

“They were very big-eyed and disjointed in the first half. Everybody wanted to show what they could do and the team didn’t perform as a unit.

“But we talked at half-time and they pulled it together. Our youngsters did very well.”

Skipper Juan Smith said: “Our set-piece wasn’t that great. We didn’t keep to our structure and that’s what you have to do against the Barbarians.”

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 mins), Donald for Nonu (64 mins), Ellis for Genia (49 mins), Mealamu for Moore (41 mins), Yapp for Tialata (64 mins), Geldenhuys for So’oialo (49 mins), Braid for Bourke (22 mins).

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 mins), Aplon for Jantjies (68 mins), Mtawarira for Oosthuizen (46 mins), Maku for A. Strauss (60 mins), van der Merwe for Hargreaves (41 mins), Daniel for Kankowski (55 mins).

Referee: Pascal Gauzere (France).