Percy Montgomery, who holds the record number of appearances for South Africa, retired from international rugby on Saturday after his country's biggest win over Australia. Montgomery, 34, made his 102nd appearance in the second half of the game at Johannesburg's Ellis Park, which the Springboks won 53-8.

It has been a remarkable 11-year journey for the full back, who made his debut as a centre against the Lions in 1997 and there was speculation that he might hang on until next summer in the hope of finishing against the same opponents. But Montgomery wants to spend more time with his family and will play out his career with Western Province in Cape Town.

His last two conversions carried his points tally for South Africa to 893, also a national record, and no South African has kicked more conversions (153) or penalty goals (148). He also holds the individual mark for points scored in one match, 35 against Namibia in a warm-up game for last year's World Cup, in which he was an automatic choice in the starting XV that won the Webb Ellis Cup, kicking four penalty goals in the final against England.

Montgomery's achievement is all the greater for missing two international seasons while playing for Newport Gwent Dragons. He bowed out in a match that went some way to creating breathing space for Peter de Villiers, the much-criticised Springbok coach who is trying to bring greater fluency to the side. South Africa, who lost to Australia 27-15 in Durban a week earlier, scored eight tries, though it does not affect the placings in the Tri-Nations.

That will be settled when Australia play the leaders, New Zealand, in Brisbane on September 13 and they hope to have several injured players available. But South Africa, who play Wales, Scotland and England in November, were 27-3 ahead at the interval, with Jongi Nokwe, the wing, claiming four tries before giving way to Montgomery. Butch James, the Bath fly half, kicked three conversions and a penalty before being replaced by Ruan Pienaar.