It is impossible to please some people and no wonder the Springboks looked insulted by the boos which rang around the Millennium Stadium as Braam van Straaten lined up the injury-time penalty which finally sunk the Barbarians in as vibrant a tour finale as anyone could ask for.

Having scored six tries, fought back from 31-14 down and declined to kick on their own ball for over an hour, the South Africans were entitled to rather better, for this was no jolly, end-of-term outing.

The Barbarians scored four tries of their own and, more pertinently, made 105 tackles. A festival game? If this was candy-floss rugby, and it hardly looked it, the action flashed past at a serious lick. As a bonus for Irish supporters, try-scorer Brian O'Driscoll was joined by three international colleagues on the field; Peter Clohessy, Malcolm O'Kelly and Andy Ward all coming on as replacements.

The South African coach Harry Viljoen made no attempt to play down his personal pleasure at the outcome, having even sat the squad down on the eve of the game to watch a video of great Barbarian matches. "It was so important for us to win," he insisted. "If anyone wants to criticise this fixture, I suggest they do their homework because they are wrong. It definitely has a part to play in the future of rugby."

If nothing else the occasion, memorable for a hat-trick of tries from Breyton Paulse, was also a fine advert for roof closure. Only umbrella salesmen and masochists would have wanted to be exposed to the elements in Cardiff yesterday and, for showpieces of this type, it was the only possible call.

The mere sight of a Barbarian jersey on a Cardiff rugby field, mudheap or not, is satisfaction enough for many, and Gareth Edwards could, as usual, be found diving for the corner on a hundred pub screens before kick-off, not to mention a million imaginations.

His recurring image placed obvious pressure on those chosen to follow in such famous studmarks but, for the first half at least, there was little sign of it.

Matt Burke's break and Christian Cullen's sprint towards the left corner - not the same legendary spot as the new pitch has been twisted by 90 degrees - were in the grand tradition, as was O'Driscoll's sublime pick-up to score. Ron Cribb's backhand flip on halfway to the scampering Pichot was also worth a fair chunk of the admittance money for a 69,876 crowd, who could gauge how hard the South Africans were trying by their furious, if futile, attempts to catch the Puma from 25 metres out.

A lovely loop and floated pass by Percy Montgomery allowed Paulse to reduce the gap to 17-12, before the powerful Chris Latham scored one and set up a further try, sprinting past halfway before putting in a towering left-footed cross-kick which bounced politely for the unmarked Cullen.

Luxuriating in their side's huge lead, the Barbarian coaching duo of Bob Dwyer and John Hart could scarcely have envisaged the Springboks would respond by scoring 29 unanswered points. Chester Williams dived under Cullen's attempted tackle for his second try before Paulse outpaced Dallaglio on the outside to narrow the gap to a converted try.

Ollie le Roux, who had been on the field barely three minutes, burst through in typical storming fashion to level the scores and the twinkling Paulse's third try arrived on the hour. The memories will be purely positive. "I've never experienced anything like the speed of the first 20 minutes," gasped O'Driscoll, clearly a convert to the ways of the Barbarians.

BARBARIANS: Cullen (Wellington and New Zealand); Burke (NSW and Australia), O'Driscoll (Leinster and Ireland), Herbert, (Queensland and Australia), Latham (Queensland and Australia); Spencer (Auckland and New Zealand), Pichot (Bristol and Argentina); Harry (NSW and Australia), Drotske (Free State and South Africa), Reggiardo (Castres and Argentina), Maxwell (Canterbury and New Zealand); Giffin (ACT and Australia), J Williams (ACT and Australia); Dallaglio (Wasps and England, capt), Cribb (North Harbour and New Zealand). Replacements: Clohessy (Young Munster and Ireland) for Harry (half-time), Hammett (Canterbury and New Zealand) for Drotske (51 mins), O'Kelly (Leinster and Ireland) for Maxwell (51 mins), Jenkins (Cardiff and Wales) for Spencer (57 mins), Kelleher (Otago and New Zealand) for Pichot (57 mins), Balshaw (Bath and England) for Latham (67 mins); Ward (Ulster and Ireland) for Williams (67 mins),

SOUTH AFRICA: Williams; Montgomery, Van der Westhuizen; Kempson, Smit Meyer Van den Berg, Andrews, C Krige A Venter, A Vos (capt). Replacements: C Marais for Smit (51 mins), Le Roux for Meyer (51 mins), Brosnihan for C Krige (51 mins), Van Staaten for Mulder (54 mins), AJ Venter for A Vos (70 mins), Tereblanche for Williams (74 mins), Van Zyl for Van der Weisthuizen (80 mins)

Referee: R Davies (Wales).