In a vastly improved performance after the narrow midweek victory against Connacht, the first-choice Springboks overpowered Scotland 27-03 in Edinburgh in their final Rugby World Cup warm-up game.
After outmuscling Ireland last week the Scots looked to take on the Springboks at their own game. They were found out against the much more powerful South Africans.
After a clinical attacking stage in the second quarter, the result was effectively beyond doubt. The Boks stood firm in defence for the first period, before throwing their energy into attack and coming away with three well-structured tries.
The first came from Bryan Habana, looking sharp in his return from injury. Number eight Danie Rossouw picked up the ball at the base of the scrum, ran laterally then popped the pass inside to Habana who ran in untouched for the try.
A couple of minutes later a linebreak from Francois Steyn, playing at inside centre, set up a try for Jaque Fourie.
The third try came from a bullocking run by prop CJ van der Linde, then good phase play and quick ruck ball from the Bok forwards to create the overlap for scrumhalf Fourie Du Prezz to canter over.
That put the half-time score at 24-3. The second half was all about defense. It was as if the Boks had practiced their attacking in the first half before coming out for the second half to focus on their defensive game. There was also a feeling that they didn’t want to give too much of their game plan away this close to the World Cup.
Fourie Du Preez produced a sublime performance at the base of the scrum, Victor Matfield dominated the lineouts, Juan Smith was huge and Bryan Habana looked energetic and sharp.
All-in-all a solid performance by the Boks who will now approach rugby’s showpiece event with a great deal of confidence after laying down a marker against the Scots.
What they said:
Juan Smith (Man of the match):
“Facing Scotland was a step up from our previous warm-up games. We knew they would make it tough for us — and they gave us a stern work out.
It certainly provided us with valuable practice ahead of the World Cup game against England and I think we have put down a marker in that respect.”
Jake White (Bok coach):
“The reality is the World Cup starts now. We will take the win and whatever has happened up to now is irrelevant.
“We must focus on what comes up in the next seven weeks.
“We have put in about 45 hours of travel this week so I was quite amazed that we lasted until the second half.
“It was a good second half performance and I suppose with the World Cup a couple of weeks away they took their foot off the pedal a bit.
“I made seven changes (in the second half), you don’t want to risk any injuries so we probably lost some cohesion. To get a win at Murrayfield is a win well taken.
“Scotland are a fast improving team under the stewardship of Frank Hadden and they made us work extremely hard for the victory.
“It was exactly the kind of match we had wanted at this stage of our preparations and we can go forward to the tournament with certain aspects clearer in our minds.
“Scotland were never likely to be pushovers. They have beaten France, England and Ireland in recent times — and they certainly provided us with a reminder of how hard Test rugby really is.”
Victor Matfield (Bok captain):
“I believe we can go all the way. We know World Cups are won by great defence and against Scotland we didn’t concede any tries. We feel good and the more matches we play throughout the World Cup will see our conditioning get even better.”
Frank Hadden (Scotland coach):
“We got a massive amount out of that experience and it can only benefit us in the World Cup.
“Don’t forget, this was only our second match as a unit since last spring, whereas the Springboks have had 10 games in that period so there was bound to be a big difference between us in terms of sharpness.
“South Africa defended fantastically well. Defence will be so important in the World Cup, so you could see why they are second favourites to win the competition.
“From our point of view, we need to sharpen things up in the line-outs and improve our accuracy in kicking.
“The Boks took their opportunities well in a match which features very few clear cut scoring chances. That is what you would expect in the circumstances. Overall, we did certain things better than when we beat Ireland two weeks ago, so I am happy with that.”
The scorers:
Springboks [27]
Tries: Bryan Habana, Jaque Fourie, Fourie Du Preez
Conversions: Percy Montgomery (3)
Penalties: Percy Montgomery (2)
Scotland [03]
Penalty: Chris Paterson
The Bok first-team seems light-years ahead of the second-stringers.