South Africa punish erratic Samoa
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Neil de Kock plunges over for the South Africans' final try
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BRISBANE, Australia -- South Africa took advantage of numerous Samoan handling errors and scored two early tries on the way to an eight-try 60-10 World Cup victory in Brisbane.
Derick Hougaard, the 20-year-old South African fly-half playing in only his fourth Test, had a personal total of 23 points, including a try.
The comfortable win eased South Africa into the quarter-finals of the tournament.
Joost van der Westhuizen got South Africa off to a great start, taking a scrum feed from 40 meters and passing to Joe van Niekerk, who ran virtually untouched for a try in the second minute.
Earl Va'a landed a Samoan penalty but Hougaard dropped a goal from 35 meters in the ninth minute before Jorrie Muller added a 12th minute try.
Samoa made a number of key ball handling errors in the first 10 minutes that helped South Africa maintain 70 percent of the possession.
Several passes went astray, including a between-the-legs pass that brought boos from among the capacity crowd of 48,496 at Suncorp Stadium.
Hougaard scored South Africa's third try in the 26th minute, when he kicked the ball ahead and was given the verdict by the video referee, then converted his own try but he missed two other dropped goal attempts in the first half from about 30 meters.
Hougaard was heavily tackled by Samoa's Brian Lima with about 15 minutes left and was dazed for several minutes but Ashwin Willamse scored South Africa's fifth try after a length-of-the-field try that came when he picked up a loose ball against the run of play.
Replacement Jaque Fourie, van der Westhuizen and reserve Neil de Kock scored the last three South African tries.
Opete Palepoi scored the Samoans' only try.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
