Rugby Union: Paulse hat-trick dazzles Italy

South Africa 74 Italy 3

BREYTON PAULSE scored a hat-trick of tries on his debut as South Africa thrashed Italy on Saturday. The Western Province wing followed his third try with a double somersault after again bamboozling the tourists' defence.

Gaffie du Toit, the Springbok stand-off, also scored two tries and kicked nine out of 12 attempts at goal for a personal haul of 29 points as South Africa ran riot in the second half with 38 points in the final 23 minutes.

Paulse followed Chester Williams and McNeil Hendricks as the Springboks' only black internationals since the game was opened to all races in 1992.

For his first he sprinted in from 40 metres after pulling in a pass with the fingertips of one hand. His second was more spectacular, dancing into the narrowest of gaps between two defenders for an unopposed run from 45 metres. He scored his third from a standing start 10 metres out after sending his opponent the wrong way.

There were also tries on their debuts for his Western Province team- mates, the lock Selborne Boome and centre Robbie Fleck, as the Springbok coach, Nick Mallett, used all seven of his replacements and awarded eight new caps.

Gary Teichmann claimed the first try after four minutes and Italy replied through a Francesco Mazzariol penalty. Du Toit ran his brace in from long range, as did Fleck and the full-back, Percy Montgomery, while Italy's problems at the scrummage were punished with a penalty try. The 11th try came from the replacement left wing Stefan Terblanche.

South Africa: Tries Paulse 3, du Toit 2, Teichmann, Boome, Fleck, Montgomery, Terblanche, penalty try; Conversions du Toit 8. Penalty du Toit. Italy: Penalty Mazzariol.

SOUTH AFRICA: P Montgomery; B Paulse, R Fleck, P Muller (J Mulder, 60), P Rossouw (S Terblanche, 66); G du Toit, W Swanepoel (D von Hoesslin, 68); R Kempson (O le Roux, 48), N Drotske (C Marais, 67), C Visagie, S Boome, K Otto (A van den Berg, 60), J Erasmus, A Venter (A Vos, 66), G Teichmann (capt, A Vos, 9-17, A Venter, 68).

ITALY: J Pertile; F Roselli, C Stoica, M Dallan, L Martin (M Baroni, 25); F Mazzariol, G Mazzi; G de Carli, A Moscardi, F Properzi, V Cristofoletto, W Visser, M Giovanelli (capt), S Saviozzi, C Checchinato.