Canada 0 South Africa 14

Canada paid the price for not playing to their strengths yesterday, going down 14-0 to semi-final bound South Africa at the World Rugby Classic.

Opting to play kicking rugby in the first half of this match-up at the National Sports Centre, they were unable to break down the opposition and allowed them to run in two tries.

Though the Canadians held firm in the second half and came close themselves on a number of occasions the damage had already been done.

"We made an awful lot of mistakes in the first half and kicked terribly," said centre Tom Woods. "We had a huge advantage with a gusting wind but at half-time, after watching our kicking performance, we decided to keep the ball in hand.

"That's when we are at our best and that's when Canadian rugby is good - when it's just hard, straight-up stuff, making tackles and playing defence.

"They didn't score on us in the second half and they kicked the ball a lot.

"We didn't play the right first half. Unfortunately the wind, a lot of times, dictates what you should do and we didn't play right, we didn't play the Canadian style.

"It's good rugby when we actually do what we are good at but we didn't do that in the first half and we deserved to get two tries scored on us."

Tiann Strauss got the first points on the board for the South Africans with Jannie Claasens adding the second. With two good conversions it was always going to be an uphill battle for the Canadians but they didn't go down without a fight.

"We tried to put some phases together and we didn't make any mistakes," said Woods on the improvement after the interval. "That's the key. This is a very, very good rugby team, the South African team. A lot of the guys play at the highest level in the world and if you make mistakes against players like that they stuff it down your throat and in the first half they stuffed it down our throat.

"In the second half we didn't make the mistakes and played a little smarter and because we have a tough group of individuals we can actually compete very well."

South African manager Carel du Plessis paid tribute to the Canadians.

"Canada are always a tough team and always take you 60 minutes. They are physical as well," he said.

Glad to be in the semi-final he said there was much more to come from his side.

"I think we can do better. I think they have an idea of the intensity of the game and have an idea of the pace of the game and I think we will up the quality, especially our ball control," he said.

They will have to against the Argentines, 15-7 victors over the USA yesterday, when the two meet on Thursday.

Opening day action saw two more heavyweights go through to the next stage with the All Blacks overcoming a feisty Iberian side 45-10 and the Barbarians, last year's Classic Lions, understandably crushing Bermuda 64-0.

The All Blacks, despite saying to the contrary, refused to kick conversions. But in fairness they did not need to after putting down early resistance from the joint Portugal and Spain side, Paul Ah Kuoi, Andrew Strawbridge, Snow Cruden, Dave Gosling and Simon Anderson among the scorers.

The Barbarians, meanwhile, looked anything like their name suggests when they ran out against the host nation resplendent in pink shirts.

But they were definitely wolves in sheeps' clothing tearing about the home side with gay abandon.

Gary Hughes came closest for Bermuda but the Police player's blistering run down the right was stopped when he was unceremoniously bundled into touch by a covering tackle.

Those results mean the Barbarians will go up against the All Blacks tomorrow evening at 8.30 p.m. while Iberia will take on Bermuda in Plate action at 7 p.m.