Not much arguing with this. Scotland threw everything at this match, setting their beloved stadium on a roar time and again, but four tries to none tells its own story. And a familiar one at that. South Africa, without ever really seeming to play much more than within themselves, were just too strong.
The image of a lusty puncher failing to land a single blow came to mind, as the Springboks held a swinging Scotland at arm’s length, rarely too troubled, for all their opponents’ fire and enthusiasm. Time and again either side of half-time, Scotland broke out, but they could not quite score a try, let alone four of them. Eben Etzebeth, the only Springbok forward to play the whole match, was the icon, huge, commanding and, at times, laughing in his opponents’ faces.
His mate in the engine room for the first half, Franco Mostert, was the victim of a double clear-out, which resulted in a 20-minute red card for Scott Cummings in the first quarter. Scotland managed to ride his absence, despite a freakish try for the Springboks while he was away, but as the game wore on a full complement of Scots waned as the game slipped away.
Those who think these 20-minute red cards are going to unleash wave after wave of lawlessness, as cynical coaches (the logic presumably runs) instruct their players to infringe at will, should be consoled at least by the fact that it looks as if these half-fat reds are going to be issued more often than the full-fat versions were. It is difficult to imagine Cummings’s “crime” would have attracted the ultimate sanction in only the 11th minute were we still under the old system.
The incident happened in the blink of an eye, two players clearing out Mostert, who looked already off balance and falling backwards. Initially, it seemed Rory Darge, the other Scot, was the culprit. He could just as easily have been singled out. The review found Cummings liable for the full sanction, so Scotland had only 20 minutes to endure down to 14. This they negotiated well enough, 12-9 down when Max Williamson replaced Cummings in the 32nd minute. Finn Russell landed his third penalty as Williamson entered the fray.
Moments earlier, South Africa had retaken the lead with an outlandish try. Bongi Mbonambi had been struggling at the lineout already when he could not quite find Mostert at an attacking set piece just inside Scotland’s 22. But the loose ball fell to Thomas du Toit, and the Springbok prop found himself with a gentle stroll to the line.
Bad luck for Scotland there, but no arguing with South Africa’s two other first-half tries, both finished expertly by Makazole Mapimpi, but brilliant in the construction. Scotland’s defence out wide seemed strangely absent for both, but the cross-kicks that set up Mapimpi, by Handre Pollard in the fourth minute and Willie le Roux in the 35th, for each were spot on, Le Roux’s in particular a thing of genius.
Scotland thought they had scored on the stroke of half-time – and how. Sione Tuipuloto released Tom Jordan, who looked every inch the full-back as he streaked away. His inside ball found Ben White, to send Murrayfield into delirium. Alas, the television match official spotted a knock-on at the preceding ruck by Huw Jones, so the try was chalked off, the Springboks’ 19-9 lead surviving into the break.
Russell cut it back to seven only a few minutes into the second half, following a rare Springbok infringement at the scrum. Within another couple of minutes, South Africa had unloaded all seven of the forwards on their bench, but this seemed only to inspire Scotland.
Their purplest patch followed, the Scots tearing through the Springbok defence, one minute Jones stepping this way and that, the next Jordan doing much the same. Surely Scotland must score, all the more so when Mapimpi was shown yellow at the height of the excitement.
But when you are playing the world champions, such encouragements must be consummated with points – and lots of them. All Scotland could take from the spell, a good 15 minutes or so of pressure, was another three points from Russell on the hour, to pull them to within four.
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That was as close as they would come. The Springbok machine, particularly ruthless at scrum time, cranked up for the final quarter. Pollard landed two penalties to put the them 10 points ahead with around five minutes to go. When another Scotland scrum splintered in the final minute, Jasper Wiese scored South Africa’s fourth.
An ugly scoreline for a vaguely encouraging performance by Scotland, but some narratives are set in stone. These South Africans can beat you in any number of different ways. They are well worth their status as the world’s best.
