Bryan Habana scored two intercept tries on his first start and Jaco van der Westhuyzen collected a try and three drop goals on Saturday as Tri Nations champion South Africa outplayed Scotland 45-10 at Murrayfield.
Jacque Fourie and Solly Tyibilika also scored tries and the South Africans even crossed the Scottish line when they had both lock forwards, Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha, in the sinbin for foul play.
It was a far different result from the last time the South Africans came to Murrayfield when they lost 21-6 two years ago for their first defeat here since 1969. This time Scotland had only a converted penalty try and a Chris Paterson penalty as Matt Williams’ men were handed a lesson by a Springboks side that bounced back well after losses to Ireland and England.
”It’s always good to be on a winning side and I thing we played particularly well in the first half,” Van der Westhuyzen said.
”I think we silenced our critics. All the frustration came out with that try and I was very happy with it.”
The Scotland coach was far from happy after his team’s third loss in a row in three weeks to a Tri Nations team.
”That performance was not acceptable,” Williams said. ”We are not looking for excuses or to pass the buck. It was not acceptable. There were too many individual errors made and too many dropped balls. We came here thinking we could win but then put up that performance and it’s not acceptable.”
Although fullback Percy Montgomery missed a comparatively simple 25-metre penalty in the second minute, South Africa went ahead with Fourie’s fifth try in seven tests.
The winger took Van der Westhuyzen’s pass and went on a diagonal run towards the corner and managed to touch down despite desperate tackles by Scotland winger Sean Lamont and fly half Chris Cusiter.
Scotland lost Cusiter with an arm injury after only 12 minutes and fell further behind when back row Tyibilika took the ball from a ruck close to the Scottish line and dived over.
Van der Westhuyzen kicked his first drop goal to stretch the lead and, although Paterson replied with a penalty kick in the 23rd minute, the South African flyhalf landed another drop goal to open up an 18-3 lead.
It got worse for the Scots when Habana, who scored a try against England as a second half replacement against England last week, intercepted a poor pass by Scottish fullback Hugo Southwell and raced 40 metres unchallenged for South Africa’s third try in the 26th minute.
South Africa had its two second rows sinbinned in the final few minutes of the first half and Scottish pressure in front of the posts ended with Welsh referee Nigel Williams awarding a penalty try for repeated foul play in the rucks and mauls.
But the 13-man South African team scored another try when Habana made another interception from Dan Parks’ pass and sprinted away for his second try as the Springboks went into half time leading 32-10.
Prop Gurthro Steenkamp thought he had scored a fifth try for 13-man South Africa but it was disallowed for stepping on the sideline before he grounded the ball.
Montgomery kicked a penalty and Van de Westhuyzen his third drop goal before the fly half finished off some slick South African handling to score the fifth try of the game with two minutes to go.
Lineups:
Scotland – Hugo Southwell, Chris Paterson, Ben Hinshelwood,
Andrew Henderson, Sean Lamont, Dan Parks, Chris Cusiter; Allan
Jacobsen, Gordon Bulloch, Gavin Kerr, Stuart Grimes, Nathan Hines,
Jason White, Donny MacFadyen, Allister Hogg.
South Africa – Percy Montgomery; Jacque Fourie, Marius Joubert,
Wayne Julies, Bryan Habana; Jaco van der Westhuyzen, Fourie du
Preez; Gurthro Steenkamp, John Smit (captain), C.J. van der Linde,
Bakkies Botha, Victor Matfield, Solly Tyibilika, Danie Rossouw, Joe
van Niekerk.
Referee – Nigel Williams, Wales.
– Sapa