ALMOST oblivious of the geological anomaly close by, England dug a few holes for themselves before their class ultimately shone through here yesterday.

They showed their superiority when they had to and, to be fair, the nature of the opposition made maintaining shape as difficult as walking past an ice-cream parlour.

England faded rather alarm-ingly in the second half, only occasionally scaling the peaks of the first half. The rest of the time the Baabaas bossed them, perhaps sensing that, by upping the tempo in the second, they could expose opponents hyperventilating in rarefied and dust-filled air.

In the first half England, the infinitely better-conditioned side, bossed the contact areas.

They steamrollered the hosts at close quarters, made headway through midfield, routinely knocking the Baabaas back in the tackle.

If they didn't bust the ball up over the gain line, halfbacks Danny Care and Charlie Hodgson deftly kicked it into space. This meant England spent much of the first half on the front foot, but not before a bright start by the Barbarians.

If there were some rough diamonds to be unearthed from this game for the Baabaas, lock David Bulbring, No8 Jacques Engelbrecht and tighthead prop Ross Geldenhuys, who probably would object to being called that in this context, sparkled intermittently as their side punched well above their weight. Scorers:

SA Barbarians (26) - Tries: Jacques Engelbrecht, Hannes Franklin, Norman Nelson, Ntabeni Dukisa. Conversions: Elgar Watts (3).

England (54) - Tries: Christian Wade (3), Thomas Waldrom (2), George Lowe, Graham Kitchener, Danny Care. Conversions: Charlie Hodgson (4) Penalties: Hodgson (2)