Mark Wyatt's Bermuda homecoming ended in disappointment yesterday when his Canada side were on the end of a sound beating from the South African Springboks.

The former national captain left the Island as a child and now lives in Victoria, British Colombia.

His appearance at the Millennium World Rugby Classic signalled the first time he had stepped foot on these shores since that time and he had hoped to inspire the Canadians to go one better than last year's final hurdle defeat.

However, they were never able to quite halt the Boks' fleet-footed front men and were guilty of surrendering the ball too easily when they did get possession.

The South Africans ran in six tries -- the conversions for which they declined -- to Canada's one and ran out 30-5 victors.

It took until the 25th minute to break the deadlock -- Pieter Hendriks going in under the posts after a sustained period of pressure from South Africa.

Up until that point the Canadians had stifled their opponents' advances -- their players working short "shifts'' which allowed them to use maximum energy and then retire to the bench to prepare for the next sortee.

However, they were caught out for a second time three minutes after the opener, Helgard Muller going in under the posts after play had been swept from the right wing to the centre.

Determined not to let it become a rout, the Canadians dug deep and played fierce -- referee John Pearson having to admonish several players from both sides as the game occasionally crossed the border between friendly and unfriendly.

The score remained the same until five minutes into the second-half when Rian Potgieter found a gap down the centre and, through a combination of speed and timely hand-offs, crossed beneath the posts to advance the score to 15-0.

A minute after the restart it was 20-0 as Hendriks sprinted the length of the Canadian half to go in at the corner.

As it appeared the Canadians -- despite several forays into the South African final third -- might be facing a shut-out, centre Tom Woods made the most of a handling error to grab the ball in mid-air and advance to the line.

But that was as far as the fightback got, South Africa's Lance Sherrell creating a try for Cabous van der Westhuizen with a clever grubber kick and Uli Schmidt accepting a gift within a yard or so of the Canadian line to make the final score that much more emphatic.

Wyatt said afterwards: "We made way too many errors -- errors that we are not accustomed to making. I don't know what the problem was today but all credit to the South Africans for playing the type of defence that they did.

"We over-comitted both offensively and defensively, dropped a lot of balls and there were gaps in our defence that shouldn't have been there.

"It's tough because we came over here expecting to put on a bit of a show and for me for my first trip here I wanted to make sure it was a significant game for us and the scoreboard doesn't reflect that.'' Despite the margin of defeat the mass ranks of Canadians in the crowd were behind their team all the way and Wyatt said their support, and that of local Bermudians, was greatly appreciated.

"It's nice to have that contingent here. I know that the Canadians have done a wonderful job in winning over the Bermudian fans support and we'll continue to be good ambassadors not only for our country but for the tournament,'' he said.

Wyatt said the trip back to his birthplace was a poignant moment.

"I left in 1965 and live on Vancouver Island now. It's part of life's cycle and it closes a chapter for me -- I'm looking forward to coming back again if I'm invited and even if I'm not I'll come back in some capacity,'' he said.

Reflecting on the win, South African opponent Hendriks said: "We enjoyed it very much. It's no good being big-headed but we have a lot of talent in our team. "There's a lot of old guys but I think about 70 percent of them played for the Springboks back home, some of them played in the World Cup and so we have a lot of experience.''