LONDON, 6 March 2005 — The Southern Hemisphere comfortably defeated the Northern Hemisphere 54-19 in the International Rugby Board (IRB) Rugby Aid tsunami fund-raiser here at Twickenham yesterday.

The South outscored their opponents eight tries to three with New Zealand fly-half Andrew Mehrtens landing all six of his conversion attempts and man of the match Wallaby full-back Chris Latham, who scored two tries, one other. With the Northern Hemisphere being coached by England World Cup-winner Sir Clive Woodward, the man who will lead the British and Lions in New Zealand later this year, the game had been billed as a ‘trial’ match for that tour. But how much he gleaned from a fixture where, in the early stages of the second-half many spectators in a half-full stadium amused themselves with the questionable gesture of a ‘Mexican Wave’ was debatable.

Both scratch teams treated the match like a Barbarians game, running and kicking to touch penalties they would otherwise have tried to strike between the posts had the game been a full international.

Inevitably, there were plenty of handling errors all round early on as the sides tried to run the ball from all angles although England centre Ollie Smith, pushing for a Test starting place, showed glimpses of class.

The South took the lead in the 13th minute when veteran Samoa wing Brian Lima linked well with All Blacks captain and center Tana Umaga, who crossed for a try.

However, the North, in front of only a half-full Twickenham crowd, hit back to level the scores seven minutes later.

Uncapped Worcester prop Chris Horsman burst forward and found North skipper and former England captain Lawrence Dallaglio in support. The veteran back-row almost crossed the line himself but he was hauled down a yard short by Latham.

However, Dallaglio’s pop-up pass found England reserve hooker Andy Titterrell. His try was converted by Ireland fly-half David Humphreys. But five minutes later the South, who put in by far the more crunching tackles throughout, went ahead when Lima sprinted clean through down the blindside.

The North though responded minutes later when Humphreys’ towering cross-kick was palmed back short of the line by Italy right-wing Mirco Bergamasco and former England back-row Pat Sanderson pounced for the try.

Humphreys, however, missed the conversion and the South were 14-12 ahead. Two more converted tries then saw the South extend their lead to 28-12 at the break.