World Cup - Ton-up for Springboks

Eurosport - Thu, 16 Aug 15:47:00 2007

Full-back Percy Montgomery scored a South African Test record of 35 points as the Springboks romped to a 105-13 win over Namibia in a World Cup warm-up match at Newlands.

RUGBY 2007 South Africa-Namibia Schalk Burger - 0

A suspected rib injury to Jean de Villiers which forced him off the field five minutes from time was the only thing to mar the game for South Africa, however coach Jake White was confident the centre would be fit for next month's World Cup.

"He got a bit of a bump, and best case scenario it's a bruise and worst case scenario I think he'll still be all right to play at the World Cup," White said.

"It could have been a lot worse like losing a player to torn ligaments in the knee. But I think we got through this test without any serious injuries."

Montgomery, playing his last Test in South Africa, surpassed the previous points record of 34, scored by Jannie de Beer against England in the 1999 World Cup quarter-final in Paris.

He scored a try, kicked 12 conversions and added two penalties to take his career Test tally to 756.

Flanks Juan Smith and Schalk Burger (pictured) both scored a hat-trick of tries as the home team ran in 15. Eleven different players scored tries for the Springboks as they surpassed a 100 points in a Test for the third time in their 101-year history.

South Africa lost skipper John Smit to a strained hamstring a few hours before kickoff so Gary Botha came in as hooker and lock Victor Matfield was given the captain's armband.

The Springboks simply overpowered their southern African rivals after Namibia scored the opening try of the match from a 65-metre intercept by wing Bradley Langenhoven.

After a physical opening 19 minutes, South Africa began to wrest control of the match when Smith touched for the first of his tries.

Four minutes later, wing JP Pietersen scored and from then on it was a steady procession towards the Namibian tryline.

The try of the match came when Montgomery called for a mark under pressure. He took a quick tap and freed centre Jean de Villiers, who swapped passes with Pietersen, before putting in a well-weighted cross kick for fellow centre Jaque Fourie to run on to.

The World Cup starts on September 7. South Africa play Samoa in Pool A on September 9 and Namibia open their campaign against Ireland in Pool D.

South Africa: 15-Percy Montgomery; 14-Ashwin Willemse (Akona Ndungane 71), 13-Jaque Fourie, 12-Jean de Villiers, 11-JP Pietersen; 10-Butch James (Ruan Pienaar 63), 9-Fourie du Preez (Ricky Januarie 63); 8-Jacques Cronje, 7-Juan Smith, 6-Schalk Burger, 5-Victor Matfield (captain) (Albert van den Berg 76), 4-Bakkies Botha (Johann Muller 71); 3-CJ van der Linde (BJ Botha 71), 2-Gary Botha (Bismarck du Plessis 71), 1-Os du Randt.

Namibia: 15-Heini Bock; 14-Bradley Langenhoven, 13-Lu-Wayne Botes (TC Losper 64), 12-Piet van Zyl, 11-Melrick Africa; 10-Emile Wessels (Du Preez Grobler 64), 9-Jurie van Tonder (Eugene Jantjies 66); 8-Jacques Burger, 7-Tinus du Plessis (Herman Lintvelt 64), 6-Jacques Nieuwenhuis, 5-Nico Esterhuysen, 4-Wacca Kazombiaze, 3-Marius Visser (Johnny Redelinghuys 36), 2-Hugo Horn, 1-Kees Lensing (captain).

Reuters