UR TV CAST

“How we came to get together during the week was fantastic,” said Latham, who was made man of the match.Last year the IRB tried to stage a similar fixture in aid of the have-nots in international rugby, but were forced to cancel it because of a lack of support.Sir Clive Woodward, the coach of the North, said his team had only one training session. When he came on in the second half, the South were running from almost everywhere.It was, of course, the opposite for Latham. Lima got the South’s second by beating Donncha O’Callaghan and John Yapp in a run to the line before Humphreys’ cross-kick enabled Pat Sanderson to respond for the North.The spirit of the South was epitomised, above all, by the Australian full-back Chris Latham, although he was closely followed by the all-action flankers Schalk Burger and Phil Waugh. Latham sprinted 50 yards for his first try in the 34th minute, which was soon followed by another from Burger.After the North had lost the Wales scrum-half Gareth Cooper with an ankle injury, Latham went on to get a second try, capitalising on a mistake by Cohen from a cross-kick by Andrew Mehrtens.Semo Sititi also crossed twice, scoring his second try and his side’s last by smashing through an attempted tackle by Mathew Tait, his Newcastle team-mate. It doesn’t get any better for young Tait, who was capped by England against Wales only to be summarily discarded. However, Umaga had already made his presence felt, scoring the South’s first try after 12 minutes, a spectacular effort created by Gregan and Lima.

Umaga also had time, with Lima, to remind David Humphreys that this was no stroll in the park by catching the Irish stand-off in a pulverising pincer-tackle.The first half was much more closely contested than the second, and after 20 minutes the North were on level terms, Ollie Smith sparking an attack with a stunning reverse-pass which released the captain, Lawrence Dallaglio, who fed a scoring pass to the hooker, Andy Titterrell. O’Brien was roundly booed.Cohen had to go off at the end after taking a bang to the face, but he lasted a lot longer than the New Zealand captain, Tana Umaga, who was replaced after 22 minutes. That aside, it had everything else, including abuse of the referee, Paddy O’Brien. An indication that there were very few false notes about the match came in the 69th minute. Ben Cohen, who is hoping to win a recall for England against Italy here next Saturday, tried everything he knew to score and appeared to have succeeded when he crossed the line, accompanied by the South captain, George Gregan. The admirable Gregan managed to dislodge the ball from his grasp, although that could only be confirmed from various camera angles.Most referees would have automatically awarded the try, but O’Brien called for the assistance of the video official, who ruled that Cohen had indeed dropped the ball. They also looked as if they had a point to prove.They won by seven goals and a try to two goals and a try as they overwhelmed a North side who represented Europe.

Critics of the Super 12 might say that they spend most of their time playing exhibition rugby. Whatever, they were good value for their victory.The International Rugby Board, who organised the fixture, which was called Rugby Aid, say they raised £1 million, although others were not so quick to verify the figure, pointing out that until the accounts were done it was impossible to estimate contributions to Tsunami Relief One figure not in dispute was the attendance of 40,246. Any notion that this special match in aid of the Tsunami Relief Fund would be an exhibition of touch rugby was dispelled in the first minute, when Brian Lima showed that he is not called “The Chiropractor” for nothing.
Pat-a-cake it was not. Mirco Bergamasco was minding his own business when the upper half of his body was rearranged by a tackle from the veteran Samoan wing.

Twickenham was just over half-full (a pessimist would say it was half-empty), but with tickets costing up to £45, perhaps it was not surprising.What was refreshing about this unique encounter is that the players approached it in a serious manner All it lacked compared with the real thing was a punch-up. We can learn a lot from them.”The Red Bull team have an engineering department strengthened by the recent addition of the former Jaguar technical director Guenther Steiner and former Renault and Jordan designer Mark Smith. In assessing the level of difficulty as greater than that faced in overcoming Juventus in Turin six years ago, Ferguson defines it explicitly: “It was a great performance in Turin, the best performance of all time, easy. Lurking on the other flank was the equally formidable figure of Sireli Bobo In short, the South had far more firepower. In a long and serious season, it provided relief, in every sense..

He shelved the plan to put up some shelves, and built some bridges instead.Well done to him and the rest of yesterday’s cast. Smith did well, and the even younger Tait, who had the England outside centre place at the outset of the Six Nations, clearly relished the chance of rehabilitation.Tait, though, tried a little too hard. At 22 he has time on his side, but is currently having to bide his time with England behind Jamie Noon. This was, in truth, no kind of testing ground for more immediate Six Nations selection or the Lions, but as the nudists on Brighton beach say, any exposure is good exposure. Most of which are kept under lock and key in regular club and Test rugby.Smith has three England caps and a similar number of serious injuries behind him which have punctuated his career. A vacancy exists on the England wing and rests between Smith, Ben Cohen, James Simpson-Daniel and Mathew Tait.