Straeuli sees a hard week after easy afternoon

South Africa 72 Uruguay 6

England have always been wary of next weekend's pivotal pool fixture against the Springboks in front of a sell-out 40,000 crowd at the Subiaco Oval; regardless of the occasional 50-point victory at Twickenham, complacency is a non-starter when the South Africans are in World Cup mode. But if Clive Woodward and his vast, million-pound entourage lose any additional sleep as a result of this stuttering performance by the 1995 champions, they should seek treatment for paranoia. If these Boks are a vintage outfit, they concealed it well yesterday.

They scored tries, of course. Loads of them. Joost van der Westhuizen, a slow-motion version of the scrum-half who campaigned so electrifyingly eight years ago but still a competitive spirit of mighty importance to the Bokke legions, hogged the limelight with a sprightly hat-trick. Bakkies Botha, a rough handful of a lock from the high veld, managed two, and there was a beauty from the new centre, Jacque Fourie, who curved his way to the Uruguayan line like a 200-metre specialist. But they also committed almost as many handling indiscretions as they scored points. England will punish them ruthlessly if they fail to tighten up.

South Africa's supporters, of whom there are many living in and around this city, will recall the previous meeting with the South Americans in the 1999 World Cup, which ended in a five-try, 39-3 victory for the Boks. They will view the increase in the winning margin as evidence of improvement. And they will be mistaken. That game was played in Glasgow, of all places, in the bitter cold of a Scottish winter. What was more, the Boks played a man short for a substantial chunk of the contest, following the dismissal of Brendan Venter.

This latest match took place in perfect conditions, and the favourites kept a full side on the field. Their advantage was always going to be more substantial than in 1999.

Rudolf Straeuli, the Springbok coach, was happy enough with a try count of 12-zip, but was distinctly underwhelmed by the error count. "There were handling errors, our structures need work, our timing was out, our support play was too slow," he admitted. "We wanted to be positive in this game, to raise the tempo whenever possible. But it goes without saying that England will present us with totally different problems. We have work to do." For his part, Van der Westhuizen agreed that those critics who accuse the Boks of the most serious slip in standards since their return from isolation in 1992 would not have been silenced by this display.

Not that the most celebrated Blue Bull of the modern era failed to enjoy himself. Van der Westhuizen put the Boks on the board within 65 seconds of the kick-off by taking a simple pass from Joe van Niekerk and dashing unchallenged down the left. Four minutes later, he picked a route through the heavy Uruguayan traffic to get on the shoulder of Ashwin Willemse and claim another five points near the posts.

Van Niekerk and Botha added further tries in short order, thereby guaranteeing the Boks their bonus point as early as the 30th minute. From that point on, the goal-kickers - first Louis Koen, then Derick Hougaard - drop-kicked their conversions in an effort to maintain a high pace.

Yet the Uruguayans never looked wholly bereft. Pablo Lemoine, their most capable player, gave the heavily built Lawrence Sephaka all sorts of grief at scrum time, and, with the outstanding France-based No 8 Rodrigo Capo always in the thick of it, the South American pack repeatedly drove mauls through the brittle barricades raised by the Springbok tight forwards. Only when the ball went wide did Uruguay look clueless, and even then Joaquin Pastore and Diego Aguirre launched themselves into tackles bordering on the self-sacrificial.

"We knew it would be bad, but not that bad," said Rodrigo Sanchez, who sweated buckets in the Uruguayan front row. However rotten the loosehead prop felt last night, the Boks will feel a whole lot worse next Saturday unless they up their act.

South Africa 72 Uruguay 6
Tries: Van der Westhuizen 3, Botha 2, Van Niekerk, Delport, Fourie, Bands, Roussouw, Scholtz, Greeff
Cons: Koen 5, Hougaard; Pens: Aguirre 2

Half-time: 36-6 Attendance: 17,000

South Africa: W Greeff; A Willemse, J Fourie, D W Barry, T Delport (R Loubscher, 69); L Koen (D Hougaard, 62), J van der Westhuizen (capt, N de Kock, 62); L Sephaka, D Coetzee (J Smith, 57), R Bands (F Rautenbach, 57), B Botha, V Matfield (S Boome, 69), J van Niekerk, J Smith, D Rossouw (H Scholtz, 76).

Uruguay: J Pastore; A Cardoso (J Menchaca, 45), D Aguirre (capt), M Mendaro, E Ibarra; S Aguirre, E Caffera (B Amarillo, 62); R Sanchez (E Berruti, 38-40 and 71), D Lamelas (JA Perez, 71), P Lemoine (G Storace, 77), J Alzueta, JC Bado, N Brignoni (H Ponte, 59), R Capo, M Gutierrez (N Grille, 45).

Referee: P O'Brien (New Zealand).