Mike Greenaway
Scotland (9) 15
Penalties: Russell (5)
South Africa (19) 32
Tries: Mapimpi (2), T du Toit, Jasper Wiese; Conversions: Pollard (3); Penalty: Pollard
It was clumsy and uneasy on the eye for long periods, but the Springboks had too much class over the full 80 minutes to close out their game against Scotland on Sunday.
The last 10 minutes saw a complete momentum shift as the slow poison of 15 forwards out of the match 23 bit into the tiring Scots. The match-defining moment came eight minutes from time when yet another Springbok scrum penalty allowed Handre Pollard to kick his team into a ten-point lead.
Scotland have been a team on the up for some time under the inspirational Gregor Townsend, yet they have remained “nearly men” who can’t quite nail a big statement win. That reputation continues. The Boks have viewed this tour as an opportunity to make a statement in the north after dominating the south in the Rugby Championship. Their ambitions of a clean sweep of Scotland, England, and Wales are on track.
The Boks exploded out of the blocks. Handre Pollard kicked a penalty to the corner, and from the lineout maul, Pollard kicked the ball out wide for Makazole Mapimpi to accelerate to the corner for a fourth-minute try.
The Boks lost two line-outs in the first ten minutes, giving Scotland territory, and they won a penalty that Finn Russell was about to line up when the TMO recommended the sin-bin for Scotland lock Scott Cummings for a dangerous tackle on Franco Mostert. Bizarrely, the officials got the wrong guy; it had been the flank, Rory Darge.
Russell did get his shot at goal, though, in the 17th minute, as Mostert was penalised for obstruction, and the flyhalf nailed the kick. At this point, the injustice to Cummings deepened when the yellow card was upgraded to red. Under a new law, he could be replaced after 20 minutes. This was a case where the controversial law made sense because the original offence by Darge had been borderline illegal.
The Scots continued to fight back and took the lead via a Russell penalty bang on 20 minutes. The Boks were rattled by the clear physical intent of the Scots in the tackle, but they received a timely boost on the half-hour mark when another fluffed line-out in the Scottish 22 saw the ball spurt backward. Thomas du Toit gathered it and found an open highway to the try line.
Russell made it 12-9 with his third penalty, but the Boks burst into a commanding lead after a brilliant Willie le Roux kick-pass to Mapimpi. As half-time approached, the Scots had a try disallowed due to a knock-on in the build-up, sending the Boks into the change rooms with a 10-point lead. It would have been a superb score by Ben White had it counted.
Russell kicked his fourth penalty three minutes into the second half, clawing the score back to 12-19. RG Snyman had come on for the second half in place of Mostert, and five minutes later, the Bomb Squad took the field to jeers from the majority of the 57,000 at Murrayfield.
The Boks had been on a charm offensive in their pre-tour training camp in Jersey when they invited the British media to media sessions. However, their reputation as bullies continued when Coach Rassie Erasmus announced a 7-1 bench split. Fifteen minutes into the half, the set scrum penalties began, but the Bok line-out woes persisted, and Scotland made their counter-attack ball count. Mapimpi was carded for a deliberate knock-down, and Russell kicked his fifth penalty, bringing his team hope at 15-19 with a quarter of the game to go.
As the tension rose, it was the right call for Pollard to kick for goal with 15 minutes remaining and Mapimpi in the sin-bin. As usual, he showcased his ice-cool temperament, sending the ball through the uprights for a seven-point lead.
The Boks hit the accelerator, and right on time, Jasper Wiese crashed over to make the result convincing.