Rugby union: South Africa's crown

South Africa 29

Australia 15

SOUTH AFRICA revived memories of their 1995 World Cup triumph at Ellis Park yesterday when they overcame Australia to claim their first Tri-Nations trophy at the third attempt.

Scoring the only two tries of the match, the Springboks equalled the winning streak of Francois Pienaar's World Cup heroes with their 14th successive victory - 13 of them under the current coach Nick Mallett. It was also Gary Teichmann's 29th appearance as captain, equalling Pienaar's record.

In front of a capacity 62,000 crowd, South Africa scored a try in each half, through tight-head prop Adrian Garvey and replacement flanker Bobby Skinstad, while their full-back Percy Montgomery kicked five penalties and two conversions. The Australian full-back Matt Burke supplied all the Wallabies' points with five penalties.

Victory put the Springboks within three wins of New Zealand's world record and gave them a 100 per cent return in the tournament. Australia were second with two wins from four matches while the All Blacks, beaten in all four Tests, came last.

South Africa went 13-3 clear when Garvey stormed over for a try following a loose maul in the seventh minute. The Australians never looked capable of breaching the solid Springbok defence, but four penalties by Burke, who missed an easy chance which cost his side victory over South Africa in Perth, kept them in contention.

At the interval, Australia only trailed 16-12, but the rampant South African scrum became even stronger after Skinstad's arrival. His try was a gem for a loose foward. Standing at centre, he jinked his way through the Australian cover to score under the posts with 11 minutes remaining.

South Africa: P Montgomery; S Terblanche, A Snyman (F Smith, 80), P Muller, P Rossouw; H Honiball, J van der Westhuizen; R Kempson (O le Roux, 48), J Dalton, A Garvey, K Otto, M Andrews (B Skinstad, 52), J Erasmus (A Aitken, 7), A Venter, G Teichmann (capt).

Australia: M Burke; B Tune (N Grey, 78), D Herbert (J Little, 6), T Horan, J Roff; S Larkham, G Gregan; D Crowley, P Kearns, A Blades (G Panoho, 67), T Bowman, J Eales (capt), M Cockbain (O Finegan, 58), D Wilson, T Kefu (W Ofahengaue, 50).

Referee: J Fleming (Scotland).