The Boks were up 19-0 at half-time, courtesy of three tries, and they added five more in the second half to get a very convincing win. There was a touch of class from the visitors just before kick-off when they handed a No 14 Baabaas jersey to the family of the late Cornal Hendricks, who were out of the field as South African flag bearers.

The first try was scored by hooker Malcolm Marx, and the second came soon after by Bok speedster Cheslin Kolbe, who glided over in the right hand corner to give the hosts a 12-0 lead within the first ten minutes of play.

A third scrum penalty resulted in the third Bok try. They kicked to the corner, won the lineout and mauled, handing debutant Vincent Tshituka a first try in the green and gold and giving the Boks a 19-0 lead at halftime.

‘Catching and passing becoming more difficult’

The rain that came down during the break worsened the underfoot conditions, resulting in more tactical kicking by both teams, with catching and passing becoming more difficult.

Bloemfontein-born Jan-Hendrik Wessels crashed over for a try in the second half, converted by Manie Libbok, with Kurt-Lee Arendse going over the line from a move that started 70m back.

Three minutes later some Kolbe magic had the BaaBaas stretched again and Lood de Jager went over from short range for a well-deserved try. The Baabaas finally got their first points when they scored courtesy of Melvyn Jaminet, making it 40-7. With ten minutes to play Tshituka scored his second try of the evening. Damian de Allende sealed the deal for the Springboks.

‘We’re fairly happy’

After the match, Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus said the challenging conditions most likely had much to do with the Barbarians poor performance.

“There’s lots for us to work on, but to keep them only for seven points and we getting to the score where we got to, we’re fairly happy. And we understand that for them, this is probably the worst conditions for a Barbarian team to play in.” They will play their first Test of the international season next Saturday against Italy at Loftus Versfeld.

Scorers:

Springboks 54 (19) – Tries: Malcolm Marx, Cheslin Kolbe, Vincent Tshituka (2), Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Lood de Jager, Damian De Allende. Conversions: Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu (2), Manie Libbok (5).

Barbarians 7 (0) – Try: Melvyn Jaminet. Conversion: Jaminet.

OFM Sport/Ilse Smalberger dgdg