By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
World champions Springboks survived an impressively stubborn Scotland 42-28 in a thrilling Nations Championship contest at Loftus Versveld Stadium in Pretoria.
Scotland will rue not winning their first Test in South Africa against the Boks, because they were the better team for large swathes of the contest.
Although the final try tally read six to four to the Springboks, it was a victory built on taking the few chances they had while Scotland failed to take several of theirs.
The clash also marked a record 55th Test in charge for Bok head coach Rassie Erasmus, who had to make a late change before kick-off with Canan Moodie ruled out through injury and Ethan Hooker drafted in on the left wing.
The opening half was a tale of two quarters after the Boks started off well in the first 20 minutes, but then became error strewn, allowing the Scots back in. They took a 14-0 lead by the 20th minute after two tries, but were pegged back level by the halftime break.
Embrose Papier was first in with a stunning solo try, beating at least five players on his way to the tryline off a ruck on the 22m line, while Evan Roos crashed over from close range shortly after. But Scotland hit back through tries by Matt Fagerson and Kyle Rowe to level things up.
It was a similar story in the second half, with the Boks producing a strong third quarter, as Elrigh Louw and Damian Willemse went over for scores to put them up 28-14. But this time they went further ahead, as Zach Porthen burrowed over, before Scotland responded through Josh Bayliss and Ben White.
Jesse Kriel then sealed the win late on with his team’s sixth try.
The win followed the Boks’ victory over England in their Nations Championship opener last week. The world champions now turn to Kings Park, where they will host Wales next Saturday, while Scotland return home to face Fiji at Murrayfield.
Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus said the team “learned a lot more from this game than the result [a 42-28 win] suggests” as South Africa fielded 12 players with 10 caps or fewer.
He compared the performance to the Boks’ infamous 2018 defeat to Wales in Bloemfontein, insisting the lessons outweighed the scoreline.
“If you win and you learn, that’s much nicer than losing and learning,” he said, before pointing out the scale of the mismatch in experience: Scotland arrived off wins over England, France and Argentina, with a settled combination built since February, while the Boks fielded a squad missing a host of first-choice players to injury.
“So, cohesion was always going to be a problem,” Erasmus said, “and you could see that in the defence, especially after some of our substitutions.”
Despite the disjointed selection, Erasmus rated Scotland among the best sides South Africa have faced recently.
“I think the only player missing from Scotland’s squad was Blair Kinghorn, plus Huw Jones,” he said. “Otherwise this is a team ranked fifth in the world.”
Erasmus disclosed that Canan Moodie had been withdrawn before kick-off after failing a fitness test.
“He wasn’t feeling well during the week. He trained reasonably well on Friday but was carrying a slight hamstring tightness – nothing serious – combined with a bit of fever.”
Springboks – Tries: Embrose Papier, Evan Roos, Elrigh Louw, Damian Willemse, Zach Porthen, Jesse Kriel. Conversions: Handré Pollard (5), Quan Horn.
Scotland – Tries: Matt Fagerson, Kyle Rowe, Josh Bayliss, Ben White. Conversions: Finn Russell (4).