‘Valiant Scotland effort ends in familiar outcome’

In 1998 the Springboks embarked on a tour of Great Britain and Ireland. They were world champions and every bit, if not more, imperious than they are today having been unbeaten for 15 matches before they faced the might of Edinburgh in a tour match at Easter Road.

If the venue was designed to confuse the visitors, it failed, as a largely second-string South Africa swatted away the Edinburgh challenge 49-3.

Four days later South Africa beat Scotland 35-10 at Murrayfield and in a nod to the game we’ve just watched Johan (Rassie) Erasmus was in the Springboks starting XV and Gregor Townsend was on the bench for the hosts.

1998 had been a tough year for Scotland. We finished second bottom of the Five Nations with only one win to celebrate then went on a summer tour of Oceania where we lost twice against Australia and once to Fiji.

The outcomes last weekend were similar to that game in 1998 but it was a valiant effort Scotland put in on this occasion. Only the Saffers power game and the fact Scott Cummings didn’t deploy his slide rule before getting stuck into a ruck meant the result went their way.

I’d also like to congratulate the match officials for their historic first use of the 20-minute red card rule. If only they had remembered the ‘within two phases’ part of the TMO protocol as well.

On a more positive note I thought Tom Jordan was excellent. He hasn’t even started a game for Glasgow at 15 yet his positioning and contributions were excellent.

In the unsung category I’d like to nominate Grant Gilchrist. Every time he’s named in a Scotland team there are naysayers yet he goes about his job with quiet resolve.

On Sunday he was Scotland’s top tackler and put in a big shift of unseen work for the whole 80 minutes.

Sandy Smith can be found at The Burgh Watch, external