Although the world champions produced their best rugby of the season they were punished by Mehrtens’ accuracy as the home side’s early possession and pressure at the beginning of each half were undone by an almost amateurish inability to get the basics right.The Springboks, smarting from three successive record losses which resulted in the sacking of Gary Teichmann as captain, can only blame themselves for basic errors; accidental offsides, kicks directly into touch and, critically, missed first-time tackles.Confusion in the centre allowed Christian Cullen to burst through the back line and score the first of his two tries.Van der Westhuizen began the second half with a try set up by Rassie Erasmus, who drew three defenders before off-loading to enable his captain to increased his South African try scoring record to 26.However, apart from these brief flashes, the game belonged to the All Blacks who produced their trademark counter-attacking flair – which resulted in Cullen’s second try as well as a drop goal by full-back Jeff Wilson just before half-time.South Africa’s old foe, Jonah Lomu, wreaked havoc when he came on as a replacement after Darryl Gibson left the field with a lower back spasm.However, neither side were aided by the inconsistency of the referee Ed Morrison, whose puzzling whistle calls rendered the game a stop-start affair at times.South Africa: Tries Snyman, van der Westhuizen Conversion du Toit Penalties du Toit 2.New Zealand: Tries Cullen 2 Penalties Mehrtens 7. Snyman, in his first Test after a long injury lay-off, collected a lucky bounce from a charged-down kick by Gaffie du Toit to drag two defenders over the line – only to be carried off in front of his home crowd. The New Zealand outside-half Andrew Mehrtens effectively won the game for the All Blacks, who led 20-11 at the break, by kicking seven penalties, punishing South Africa’s all too frequent elementary errors.
Captained for the first time by Joost van der Westhuizen, the Springboks were dealt a cruel blow when the centre Andre Snyman fractured his ankle as he scored the game’s first try. NEW ZEALAND showed once again why they are favourites to lift this year’s World Cup with a convincing victory over the Springboks here. Despite an improved performance by the Springboks, Saturday’s Tri-Nations clash was their fourth successive Test defeat, and came in front of a capacity crowd. He’s done a terrific job for us, he’s just outstanding, really.

He’s happy to bowl all innings from one end and there have been times in the last few games when you couldn’t get the ball off him.”. He has taken 66 Championship wickets this summer and Crawley said: “It’s simply amazing. I don’t think there’s been anyone as prolific in recent years. The off-spinner ripped through Derbyshire who were bowled out for 135 as Lancashire wrapped up a convincing win before stumps on the third day.Muralitharan goes home this week to prepare for the Test series against Australia but he returns to Old Trafford next year. But torrential rain meant the match was abandoned without a ball being bowled which does Northamptonshire’s hopes of securing promotion no good.John Crawley, the Lancashire captain yesterday paid tribute to Muttiah Muralitharan after the Sri Lankan spun the county to another Championship victory on Saturday.

Hayden will join up with Australia’s Test squad at a training camp in Brisbane next week before their tour to Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, and was set to lead his county for the last time this summer in the Second Division contest against Derbyshire. Michael Kasprowicz, the Australian pace bowler, took the other two wickets to finish with 3 for 72.There was then a two-and-a-half-hour rain delay before Leicestershire began their reply in mid-afternoon. But Ed Giddins’ second delivery saw Darren Stevens caught at second slip by Nick Knight, before heavy rain ended the day’s play.The Northamptonshire captain Matthew Hayden’s hopes of signing off for the season with a National League victory were dashed by the weather at Northampton. One of Ormond’s victims was Dominic Ostler, who finished as Warwickshire’s top scorer with an 87 that included 11 fours. It was the first time he had gone past 50 for nearly two years.

Having made his county debut four years ago, the five wickets also took him to a total of 103 in 26 matches for Leicestershire. Despite being affected by injury problems over the four years, he is regarded as one of the brightest young fast bowling prospects on the county circuit – and this was the third time this season he has taken five wickets in an innings.Warwickshire, who resumed on 214 for 4, scored 92 runs for the loss of their last six wickets in the morning. They did, however, manage to lose a wicket.Ormond, who was awarded his county cap during the lunch interval, is now Leicestershire’s leading wicket-taker this season with a total of 38. Leicestershire faced two deliveries in reply before heavy rain ended the day’s play. After Saturday’s complete washout only 20.5 overs of play were possible on the third day, making the game a near certainty to end in a draw.
Ormond took four wickets in a 10-over spell before lunch to finish with 5 for 108 as Warwickshire were bowled out for 306. JAMES ORMOND, Leicestershire’s 21-year-old fast bowler, claimed the eighth five-wicket haul of his career yesterday as rain again badly affected the defending county champions’ match with Warwickshire at Grace Road.