Boks stutter to victory
2007-08-21 22:52
Galway, Ireland - South Africa stuttered to a narrow 18-3 win over Irish provincial side Connacht on Tuesday.
Fresh from last week's 105-13 hammering of fellow World Cup team Namibia, the Boks laboured against the weakest of the four Irish teams who won only four games from 20 in last season's Celtic League.
The sole score of the first-half came after just two minutes when Bath-bound Bok Butch James, playing in the centre to accommodate Ruan Pienaar at flyhalf, fired over a penalty from in front of the posts.
South African wing Ashwin Willemse then crossed for a try four minutes into the second half, during which both sides made a raft of replacements.
Replacement No 8 Jacques Cronje scored South Africa's second try after 68 minutes, and James this time made no mistake with the conversion.
A penalty three minutes from Andre Pretorius sealed the Boks' unconvincing win.
South Africa, who are grouped in Pool A with England, Samoa, the United States and Tonga, will now face Scotland in Edinburgh on Saturday in their final warm-up game before their opening World Cup clash on September 9 against the Samoans.
Bok coach Jake White said in an interview after the match that his players could have been over-confident after their big win against Namibia, and that was a lesson to be learned.
He said his team struggled to get momentum going and when they did, they failed to finish off their attacks.
White pointed out that in the 1995 World Cup the Boks almost lost to Romania but went on to win the Webb Ellis Cup.
Former Springbok flyhalf and SuperSport commentator Naas Botha differed, and reminded White that the players were amateurs in 1995 and that one would not expect professional players to underestimate their opponents.