They will not have enjoyed what they saw yesterday.Mpumalanga: Tries Joubert 2; Conversions van As 2. Two minutes later, Wainwright employed his natural pace to capitalise on Keith Wood's pop-pass and gallop in from 20 metres.Further scores arrived at regular intervals, Dawson and Underwood crossing before the break. "What we were able to draw on this time was a very strong contribution from the tight forwards."Wainwright's remarkable burst of scoring effectively killed the game before anyone had broken sweat. "The continuity from the loose forwards has been in evidence all tour," said Tim Rodber, the captain. If ever three Irishmen and a pair of Scots re-established some tarnished reputations, it was here yesterday. Back in 1993, their immediate Lions ancestors turned their backs on the red jersey and allowed Waikato to inflict one of the most humiliating defeats in the history of British Isles tour parties.

This time, it was a different story.Tom Smith, the new David Sole from north of the border, may well have played himself into the Test team with a solid scrummaging performance allied to some dynamic support work in open field. His fellow prop, Paul Wallace, also made inroads with the selectors with a rich display of skilled ball-handling far beyond the scope of most British tight forwards. "The stamp on Doddie was a cold-blooded act totally out of context with the game," said an incandescent Ian McGeechan, the Lions coach. "Under the terms of the tour agreement we cannot cite the offender because the incident was dealt with by the referee, but the fact remains that Doddie has a medial ligament injury that may prove very serious."Still, nothing could detract from a performance of high quality from the tourists and happily, given events in the north island of New Zealand four years ago, the foundations were laid by a tight unit of celtic persuasion. His second- row partner, Marius Bosman, also made a mark of sorts by stamping on Doddie Weir's left knee - an act that may threaten the Scotsman's tour and so incensed the Lions' management that they immediately mustered arms for a diplomatic incident.

Elandre van der Bergh, the culprit when Jon Callard was badly disfigured in Port Elizabeth in 1994, re-confirmed his position of high office in the Head-kickers' Convention by "river dancing" all over Wainwright at a 24th-minute ruck. Mpumalanga 14 Lions 64 Fran Cotton's unbeaten Lions arrived on the high veld fully expecting the red mist to descend over the Johann van Riebeeck Stadium. As it turned out, Mpumalanga generated nothing more frightening than the smoke of a thousand barbecues and in the space of 20 extraordinary minutes, the up- country hard-nuts of the South-Eastern Transvaal found themselves blown away by some very special rugby indeed. Anyone tempted to write off Rob Wainwright, the Lions' blind-side flanker, following his travails in the swamplands of East London a week ago was forced to think again as Scotland's national captain ran in a startling hat-trick of tries before the end of the opening quarter.The wings, Ieuan Evans and Tony Underwood, then found their stride with two tries apiece and with Matt Dawson, Neil Jenkins and Nick Beal also picking routes through a bemused and befuddled home defence, there was little for Mpumalanga to do but snarl about in search of the odd smidgen of mayhem.Sadly, they achieved something in that direction. Joey Benjamin mopped up to finish with 3 for 52, Tudor's 21 overs yielding 77 runs for his two wickets..

It was cruel that he fell when he did - a tantalising two runs away from what would have been a deserved third first-class century. Appropriately it was Tudor who did for him, inducing the batsman to present the wicketkeeper, James Knott, with his first catch in the Championship. By then, though, he had done enough.When Robert Rollins replaced him, he carried on the good work, growing in confidence after tea as he reached his second half-century in his third Championship innings of the season. The fact that he has a fractured left index finger which had delayed his first first-team appearance this season did not seem to bother Rollins. He has put off an operation until the end of the summer.The only pain in evidence was on the faces of the Surrey fielders as Rollins drove Essex towards a third batting point. There were a couple of chances when he was on 37 and 75 but he rode his luck well.