Hougaard stakes a claim but Sydney belongs to Georgia

South Africa 46 Georgia 19

No disrespect to New Zealand, but whoever decided to give the entire World Cup to Australia rather than have a joint Anzac operation probably made the right decision. Call it sport, or even a blood sport, and Australians will turn up in their droves to watch.

In what other country, and certainly not Britain, would 34,000 people, just 6,000 below capacity, give up their Friday night and pay good money, and drink bad beer, to look at a foregone conclusion? South Africa is a great, traditional rugby nation and wherever they play they are guaranteed considerable support. The opposite applies to Georgia - except here. The Aussies have taken them to their hearts and the green-and-gold backing for the Springboks yesterday was submerged beneath a tide of overwhelming emotional support for the Georgians.

There have been some great moments at Aussie Stadium in the 15 years since it was built, but it has never witnessed anything like this. When David Dadunashvili scored a try in the 54th minute, Sydney went into orbit. The crowd appreciated that the Georgians, who lost 84-6 to England and 46-9 to Samoa, had scored their first try in the tournament. Thus the hooker wrote a little footnote in World Cup history.

At that point Georgia were trailing 29-16 and throwing themselves about like men possessed. The fairytale could not last, of course, and the Springboks, fielding only two of the side that gave England such a hard time in Perth last week, pulled clear to win fairly comfortably.

Derick Hougaard, who was starting a game for the first time for South Africa, contributed 16 points and is a contender to replace Louis Koen, who missed four penalties against England, for the Springboks' remaining matches. Hougaard scored a try, landed four conversions out of seven, some from the touchline, and kicked a penalty in the fourth minute.

Georgia were determined not to go quietly and the stand-off, Paliko Jimsheladze, kicked three penalties and converted the epic try. The other penalty was kicked by the replacement No 10, Merab Kvirikashvili.

Their try was scored when the Boks were reduced to 14 men, Hendro Scholtz getting a yellow card, not to mention a huge cheer, for killing the ball.

"All credit to the Georgians,'' Rudolph Straeuli, the South Africa coach, said. "They defended like Trojans.'' Danie Rossouw scored two of the Boks' seven tries but overall it was not their finest hour. That belonged to Georgia and a crowd of 34,308. Believe it or not, that figure could even be surpassed when Georgia bow out against Uruguay here on Tuesday.

"My players aren't totally satisfied but they are proud of their effort,'' Claude Saurel, Georgia's French coach, said. "The crowd was a very good surprise for us. The players were encouraged to give such a lot of energy. The Australian public have been very nice to the underdogs. We tried everything we could. We were determined to do our best and give it a go.'' Bring on Uruguay.

South Africa: Tries Rossouw 2, Hougaard, Van Niekerk, Fourie, Botha, Burger; Cons Hougaard 4; Pen Hougaard. Georgia: Try Dadunashvili; Con Jimsheladze; Pens Jimsheladze 3, Kvirikashvili.

South Africa: R Loubscher; S Terblanche, J Fourie, W Greeff (J Muller, 77), B Paulse; D Hougaard, N de Kock; L Sephaka (D Santon, 69), J Smit (capt), F Rautenbach, B Botha, S Boome, H Scholtz, D Rossouw, J van Niekerk (S Burger, 64).

Georgia: I Machkhaneli (B Khamashuridze, 63); G Khonelidze, O Eloshvili, V Katsadze (capt), A Kavtarashvili; P Jimsheladze (M Kvirikashvili, 61), I Modebadze; A Kopaliana, D Dadunashvili (A Guiorgadze, 75), A Margvelashvili (I Nikolaenko, 75), S Gujaraidze, V Didebulidze, D Bolghashvili, G Tsiklauri, G Chkhaidze.

Referee: S Dickinson (Australia).