Scotland vs South Africa: Springboks regain world number one ranking

Makazole Mapimpi scored a brace of tries as error-strewn South Africa defeated Scotland 32-15 in their international clash at Murrayfield as their forward power helped them to a scrappy win.

The Springboks, who also scored tries through prop Thomas du Toit and number eight Jasper Wiese, will regain the world number one ranking from Ireland with the victory.

They made 11 changes for the match and looked disjointed, not helped by 21 handling errors that broke their momentum.

It is a ninth successive loss to South Africa for the Scots, but there will be aspects of their performance they will be pleased with, though they failed to take their chances in the visitors’ 22, with all their points coming from the boot of flyhalf Finn Russell.

South Africa next travel to Twickenham to play England on Saturday, while Scotland host Portugal on the same day for their third match having already beaten Fiji 57-17.

“It was a tough test match, Scotland are always difficult to play against and they gave us problems in the first half especially. The scoreline flatters us a bit, it was closer than that,” Springbok captain Eben Etzebeth said.

“We needed to stick together. It was a tough test match, but we put a lot of detail into our defence to keep teams out.”

It is the second meeting in a row that South Africa have kept Scotland from crossing their tryline having also kept them out at the Rugby World Cup last year.

Scotland’s lock Scott Cummings reacts as he is sent to the sin bin during the rugby test against the Springboks at Murrayfield. His yellow card was later upgraded to a red.
Photo: AFP

South Africa dominated the early possession and after turning down a kickable shot at goal, Handre Pollard’s cross-kick was perfect for Mapimpi to gather and score in the corner.

Scotland were reduced to 14 players when lock Scott Cummings was penalised on TMO review for a croc-roll at the ruck on Springbok counterpart Franco Mostert that met the threshold for dangerous play.

He initially received a yellow card, but on bunker review it was upgraded to a 20-minute red card which ended his participation in the game, replaced later on by Max Williamson.

The home side moved into the lead midway through the first half when Russell added two penalties as Scotland looked to have managed their numerical disadvantage superbly with some ferocious tackling to apply pressure on the visitors.

But as the seconds ticked down to them being back to their full complement, the visitors scored a second try from a messy attacking line-out as lock Mostert missed the throw and the ball fell kindly for prop Du Toit to gather and have a clean run to the line.

The Springboks added a third score when Scotland scrumhalf Ben White took too long to clear from the base of the ruck and from the resultant scrum, this time it was fullback Willie le Roux’s kick that was collected by Mapimpi to coast in for his second score.

The Springboks, who selected seven forwards on the bench, brought on six of them after 45 minutes, but Scotland fed off the visitors’ numerous errors to stay in the contest.

Mapimpi received a yellow card just before the hour-mark for cynical play and Russell closed the gap to five points with a penalty.

But South Africa are masters at closing out games and took control again in the final 20 minutes as they won several scrum penalties before Wiese crossed for a try with the final play of the game.

– Reuters