Southern Hemisphere side triumph in charity game

Northern Hemisphere 19 Southern Hemisphere 54

The galaxy of stars from the Southern Hemisphere sparkled with an eight-try command performance in the AID match for the Tsunami survivors at Twickenham this afternoon.

The 40,246 crowd were treated to a competitive match in which the northern side, put together in the middle of the RBS 6 Nations championship, struggled to counter the class of the south – led by Australia’s captain George Gregan.

All Black skipper Tana Umaga had his much anticipated appearance limited to just 22 minutes before he retired after taking a knock – but that was long enough for him to open the scoring with a 12th-minute try.

Australian full-back Chris Latham and Newcastle’s Samoan Semo Sititi touched down twice each with their side’s other tries coming from Samoan winger Brian Lima and the South African pair of flankers Schalk Burger and centre Jacque Fourie.

The pick of their tries was Sititi’s first in the 51st minute when he applied the finish after Fijian winger Sireli Bobo’s dazzling run split the north defence wide open for Latham to supply the final pass.

New Zealand fly-half Andrew Mehrtens produced a glittering kicking display, landing all his six conversions before Latham took over to kick the seventh.

The north replied with tries from England’s second choice hooker Andy Titterrell, Worcester former England flanker Pat Sanderson and French winger Mirco Bergamasco.

Ireland David Humphreys and Ceri Sweeney, of Wales kicked a conversion each.

The quality of the south’s fast-moving backs meant the north were always playing catch-up but Ollie Smith, Leicester’s 22-year-old centre, took the opportunity to further his international claims.

Smith, aiming for promotion from the England bench to the starting line-up before the Six Nations finishes, impressed both in defence and attack.

But Welsh prop John Yapp and the uncapped Worcester front row man Chris Horsman, who are relatively inexperienced at the top level, found it tough going against the south’s props, All Black Carl Hoeft and South Africa’s Kobus Visagie.

Out-of-favour England winger Ben Cohen suffered a double blow late in the game.

The World Cup winner was denied a try after the fourth official considered the video evidence – much to the annoyance of the pro-England crowd – and then he retired after taking a blow in the face.

But the real winners from the showpiece are the 1.5 million survivors from the Tsunami disaster.

The match, watched by an estimated worldwide TV audience of 160 million, is expected to raise anything between £2 and £4million for the UN World Food Programme Appeal.