All Blacks need to learn lessons from Springboks' win

By DAVID LEGGAT

BRISBANE - Samoa's brave World Cup challenge withered under a South African forward avalanche at Suncorp Stadium -- and with it came a warning for the All Blacks.

The South Africans thumped Samoa 60-10 to march into next Saturday's quarter-final against the All Blacks in Melbourne with their confidence on the rise.

They crushed Samoa by eight tries to one, led 31-3 at halftime, and made it clear the All Blacks will have a fierce challenge if they are to advance to the semifinals.

The Springboks mangled Samoa at the first two scrums of the match, scored their first try directly from the second, and the pressure on the gallant but outmatched Samoan pack rarely eased.

With a formidable front row of Christo Bezuidenhout, John Smit and Faan Rautenbach, reputed to be South Africa's most powerful scrummagers, leading the way, the Springboks served notice to the All Blacks of where they are likely to attack them next weekend.

Add to that they showed they have a classy first five-eighth in 20-year-old Derick Hougaard, who scored one try, kicked a drop goal, five conversions and a penalty for a match haul of 21 points.

More than just the points, however, Hougaard, playing his first test in the Springbok starting XV, showed his sharp eye for attacking opportunities. A quick thinker with a youthful zest and a wise head on his shoulders, Hougaard represents a different threat to the All Blacks than the one-dimensional, static Louis Koen.

South Africa's backs will have taken confidence as they ran in six of their eight tries, including four in the last 13 minutes, as the Samoan defence wilted.

As for Samoa, they suffered badly from nerves early on, dropped the ball frequently and it was not until the game was a quarter old that they started to trust their instincts and run at the Springboks.

They were always going to come second if they were to play a structured game and so it proved. They managed one try, to lock Opeta Palepoi, but squandered at least three other second-half chances, although by then the game had well and truly gone.

As they have done at every World Cup, the Samoans left having made more friends. Hopefully their plaintive cries for support from the International Rugby Board, and the New Zealand and Australian Rugby Unions in terms of financial assistance, Super 12 consideration and having fewer Samoan-eligible players lost to those two countries will not fall on deaf ears.

The World Cup needs Samoa and if some help from the game's top brass is not forthcoming the island nation believes its participation could soon be a thing of the past.

If that happens it won't just be Samoa that is the poorer.