Key events
A great test match, Scotland gave it everything but in the end the Bok defence when it mattered and the dominant physicality was too much. Given the Scottish subs made such an impact, questions will be asked again of why Townsend took so long to deploy them; a familiar lament of his time in charge.
Rassie Erasmus will know that wasn’t perfect from his side, but he knows a bit more about some different players at this level as he builds his probably diabolical plan to win a third consecutive World Cup.
FULL TIME! South Africa win in Pretoria
The scrum forces a penalty out of Scotland, the ball is tapped and sent from the field by Williams.
80 mins. We await the scrum and the end of the game.
79 mins. Scotland have the ball and Williamson finds another gap to run through, but he knocks on in the tackle.
TRY! South Africa 42 – 28 Scotland (Jessie Kriel)
78 mins. On a penalty advantage from the lineout Pollard tickles a kick through the defence on halway that Kriel gathers to step around two defenders and score from forty metres.
I go back to what I said about micro-disciplines.
76 mins. Tuipulotu storms through a gap and steams 30 metres forward before being hauled down by a desperate defence on the 22. The ball comes out the Scotland side, but a poor pass from Jordan finds no-one but touch to end the opportunity.
75 mins. The scrum folds in on itself, but the ref is happy no-one is at fault and Horn boots it clear.
73 mins. Scotland are on the hoof again, Cummings and Bradbury with massive carries covering 40 metres. The ball is recycled quickly and Jordan creams a cross-kick to Steyn who gathers it to his chest, from where it promptly bounces out with the line 10 metres away!
Springbok 5m defensive scrum incoming.
TRY! South Africa 35 – 28 Scotland (Ben White)
70 mins. Hiddleston again races into the open, he’s on fire since he came on. They are back in the 22 and moving the ball coast to coast before White decides to snipe from the ruck and makes enough ground to reach and score one-handed.
They couldn’t, could they?
TRY! South Africa 35 – 21 Scotland (Josh Bayliss)
68 mins. Hang on though, the defence suddenly opened up for Hiddleston to run through and feed Bayliss to score.
67 mins. This is now over for Scotland. Much is made of the power of South Africa, and rightly so, but so much of what is good about them is what you might call micro-disciplines. In contact, in handling, at set piece; they do everything so well, alloyed with that aforementioned power.
TRY! South Africa 35 – 14 Scotland (Zach Porthen)
66 mins. Scotland are essentially in a vice of the Boks’ making now, with each set piece another turn of the crank. The latest lineout has the home side rapidly into the red zone for sub Porthen to score.
63 mins. Back on the ball and busy, Scotland are nevertheless stuck around halfway as the home defence lock into a line and smother everything. On the face of it Scotland are doing well, but look a little closer and they really aren’t.
This is cemented when Scotland concede a penalty at the ruck for holding on after the endless ball shovelling results in an isolated player.
TRY! South Africa 28 – 14 Scotland (Damien Willemse)
60 mins. Make that 0-14. IT was all quite simple, the ball was moved left with some offloads that eventually find Willemse to step, hit and stretch out for the line.
Pollard converts
That try is a total spirit-puncher for Scotland; for all their great play in the previous 10 minutes they came away losing that period 0-7.
TRY! South Africa 21 – 14 Scotland (Elrigh Louw)
57 mins. The ball is out and in Bok hands, wasting no time to charge into the Scots 22 for what feels like the first time in the half. Scotland are offside in defence, but the home side continue to press over the five metre for Louw to smash over.
55 mins. A Bok scrum is taking a very long time to complete, so much so that Brousset has a word for both teams pre-engaging.
53 mins. Ben-Jason Dixon is back on from the sin-bin as the game reaches a quieter period.
50 mins. What could have been a tricky defensive scrum for South Africa is overcome by them winning a penalty for Schoeman losing his bind.
49 mins. The Scottish offloading game emerges again, like a dancing tormentor for the Bok defence they continue to exit the ball from the tackle. They reach double phases with a huge Russell pass out to Dobie for a dash up the right touchline, before they come all the way back to Steyn on the other wing. Bayliss skips out of a tackle but the busy offloading leads to a snatching knock-on from Dempsey.
Great stuff from Scotland, covering 50 metres, but the Boks will delighted that for all the dynamic activity from the visitors they still haven’t scored in this sin-bin period.
46 mins. Ref confirmed the yellow card will remain that colour.
45 mins. Pollard tries a cute drop-out, short and left towards Du Toit no more than 5 metres from the tryline who fumbles it backward to Nortje who sets off with way too much pace for a man of his size, galloping thirty or so metres before he’s scragged. There’s not a huge amount of composure from either side after this and the ball eventually reaches touch via a Willemse fumble on the 10m line.
44 mins. Scotland attack from a lineout via catch and drive maul. It moves inexorably to the line and appears odd on for a try, but a green defender gets under the ball and holds it up.
YELLOW CARD! Ben-Jason Dixon (South Africa)
42 mins. Possession is traded a couple of times in the opening minutes. For a second it appears Scotland have the ball out of a Bok ruck and a chance to run free, but the whistle sounds to bring play back for a Scottish player offside.
The TMO weighs in, however, as Dixon’s clearout at the ruck smashed head on head with Scott Cummings’s nose. Ref Brousset goes to his pocket and he’s off for a red card review.
SECOND HALF!
Russell kicks deep and the game is back underway.
Outstanding game so far, with Scotland fronting up vs a formidable team in a formidable stadium.
There will be some commenting that this is weaker Bok team, and while true to an extent that should not take away from Scotland’s performance especially after going 14 points down out the gate.
Half time!
That score is the final act of a very entertaining half.
TRY! South Africa 14 – 14 Scotland (Kyle Rowe)
39 mins. They certainly can! The ball is won from the lineout and Scotland set about the defensive line with repeated runs, moving the point of attack. Tuipulotu straightens up and his one-handed offload finds Rowe in support to canter over unopposed.
Conversion added.
36 mins. A few kicks back and forth as each side probes for an error, and it’s advantage Scotland for Fassi fiddling with the ruck. Russell send it to touch, can Scotland get themselves level before the half?
TRY! South Africa 14 – 7 Scotland (Matt Fagerson)
34 mins. Tapped penalty followed by a couple of carries, the last of which is Fagerson driving over to ground it.
Russell converts.
33 mins. The ball is held a little too long in the scrum under their own posts by South Africa, this invites a call for a massive shove from Scotland and it forces a collapse. Penalty to the visitors, that they opt to tap and go.
32 mins. A well constructed attack from the lineout moves the ball to the middle of the field for Russell to have a strong, darting run, followed by Brown muscling forward. This weakens the Bok defence but Ashman bounces the ball forward off his hands when charging for the line from 5 metres.
30 mins. When they apply pressure, as they have just done once more with a multi-phase and busy attack, Scotland are forcing penalties out of the Bok defence. The ball is sent to touch 7 metres from the tryline for a lineout.
28 mins. A lively attack from Scotland full of offloads and strong runs from the forwards, but inevitably the longer it goes on the more isolated the runners become, allowing Nortje to get his hands on it.
26 mins. The lineout is won by Scotland in the 22, triggering a move to bring the ball back towards the short side via Ben White. But his run offers the tiniest hint of isolation and thus opportunity to Grobelaar who clamps on the ball and wins a relieving penalty.
23 mins. After the drinks break, Scotland emerge from the fog of the hammering of last 10 minutes via big carry from Tuipulotu. They are into the Bok 22, probing the defence on a penalty advantage, moving the ball left to Ashman who is bundled into touch.
TRY! South Africa 14 – 0 Scotland (Evan Roos)
19 mins. Wiese rises to claim the restart, lands and then sets off on a rampaging, humiliating, soul-puncturing run through the defence. He pops it to keep the attack going and soon they are on the line and driving hard and repeatedly, the last of which is Roos squeezing over from inches.
TRY! South Africa 7 – 0 Scotland (Embrose Papier)
17 mins. The Boks come back from the drop out and after a couple of phases Papier hops over the ruck, shimmies and jinks and he’s clear to run 25 metres up to the line to open the scoring.
15 mins. The bok scrum mashes the Scots like a glacier at full throttle. Nothing comes from the penalty advantage and so they opt for another scrum, which Scotland negate by giving away a free kick for early engagement. Roos goes quickly up to the line to set off waves of muscular short carries, each repelled by Scotland until Dempsey gets underneath and holds up the ball.
Cue ecstatic cheers from the Scottish defence.
12 mins. The Boks have their attacking blood up, however, and their first visit to the 22 brings a penalty for Dempsey not rolling away. It’s in the shadow of the posts but South Africa opt for a scrum, because of course they do.
9 mins. A worrying moment for Scotland as a Papier kick is allowed to bounce in behind with a gathering green group of shirts very close on the chase. Russell turns, dives on it at full stretch and grips it to his chest long enough for his ruck clearers to arrive, set it and let White clear the lines.
7 mins. Bok discipline is once more wanting under pressure with Wiese again infringing, this time for entering a maul from the side. Russell puts it into touch for a 5m lineout platform that is ruined by Ashman not throwing straight. Papier boots clear from the scrum.
4 mins. A few carries from South Africa are contained by the Scottish defence, before Wiese goes off his feet at the ruck allowing Russeel to find touch in the Bok half.
2 mins. Ben White finds a solid touch after the restart and the first mistake of the game is a Bok one, with Grobelaar overthrowing the lineout and handing possession to Scotland on halway. They waste no time spreading it wide to Rowe then Ashman bu the holds on a bit too long on the ground. Penalty SA.
Officials for today:
Referee: Pierre Brousset (France)
Assistant Referee 1: James Doleman (New Zealand)
Assistant Referee 2: Andrew Brace (Ireland)
TMO: Richard Kelly (New Zealand)
KICK OFF!
Pollard sets us off with a big boot.
New Zealand meant business earlier, have a read of the match report here.
Send me all your thoughts, views, questions or whatever on the email. I look forward to reading them.
Teams
South Africa: Aphelele Fassi; Edwill van der Merwe, Jesse Kriel, Damian Willemse, Canan Moodie; Handre Pollard, Embrose Papier; Boan Venter, Johan Grobbelaar, Wilco Louw; Cobus Wiese, Ruan Nortje; Paul de Villiers, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Evan Roos.
Replacements: Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Ntuthuko Mchunu, Zach Porthen, Ben-Jason Dixon, Vincent Tshituka, Elrigh Louw, Grant Williams, Quan Horn.
Scotland: Kyle Rowe; Kyle Steyn, Rory Hutchinson, Sione Tuipulotu, Jamie Dobie; Finn Russell, Ben White; Pierre Schoeman, Ewan Ashman, Zander Fagerson; Gregor Brown, Scott Cummings; Matt Fagerson, Rory Darge, Jack Dempsey.
Replacements: Gregor Hiddleston, Rory Sutherland, Will Hurd, Alex Samuel, Josh Bayliss, Magnus Bradbury, Tom Jordan, Stafford McDowall.
Preamble
We live in a time of what many consider late-stage capitalism, with globalised finances and all that causing much debate about whether the deal that the dominant system of the last 300 years somehow makes us all better off may be broken.
Scotland is, of course, considered the birthplace of modern capitalism and if you ask daddy Scotsman of it all, Adam Smith, then it wasn’t really meant to be like this. Self-interest wasn’t meant to be completely selfish, it was more concerning the most efficient way to get stuff done/built/made. Funny that his nation’s team can’t grasp that 300 years later..
One team that can grasp such a concept and never ever let go of it is South Africa. But their self-interest is absolutely selfish in nature, like the living embodiment of 80s asset stippers they identify, take over, then systematically dismantle that which is in their way. Except they don’t sell the broken off bits for a profit, their reward is to feast on the humiliation of what remains then on to the next one. It is simultaneously logical and elemental, just ask England after last week.
Gregor Townsend’s side arrive in Pretoria off the back of a welcome win and performance vs Argentina even if there was a whiff of switching off late on from the men in blue. This could be forgiven as the game was well won at that stage, but it’s hard to see them in such a position today, even facing a heavily rotated Springbok squad.
