Breakaway forward Juan Smith underlined the relief and satisfaction of the Springboks following their jittery success against Scotland at Murrayfield.
The Scots had been in control at 10-0 ahead just after the half-time break — only for the tourists to regroup and hit back in ultimately decisive fashion. The Springboks won 14-10.
And man-of-the-match Smith declared: ”All credit to Scotland for their excellent performance, however we came back well after a poor opening period.
”Scotland battered away at us for the full 80 minutes, but once we had found our structure, we felt we were okay.
”And our defence held up strongly when they had us under pressure in the last 10 minutes.”
Scotland coach Frank Hadden refused to slip into self-pity mode in the wake of the latest defeat by a southern hemisphere outfit.
And he insisted his troops only had themselves to blame for the result than will mean so much in terms of their World Cup seeding.
The coach declared: ”We are absolutely gutted — much more frustrated than we were after the All Blacks game last weekend.
”It was a case of our discipline and concentration letting us down when it mattered most in the final 10 minutes, and the fact that we lost our momentum early in the second half by giving away a series of
penalties and free kicks.”
Then came the moment the Murrayfield faithful had been waiting so long for.
A darting run by Godman on the brink of half time set up a series of rucks close to the Bok line, and the patient approach paid off when Nathan Hines hurled himself over.
Godman added the conversion to pave the way for a tense second half.
Predictably, South Africa came back out with all guns blazing and only a last-ditch tackle by Hugo Southwell on Jean de Villers stopped them scoring in the corner.
They kept pressing and the gap was narrowed when Ruan Pienaar clipped over a point-blank range penalty for offside.
He repeated the dose in the 55th minute to pile more pressure on the hosts, who were beginning to feel the pace.
And the tide turned within seconds as substitute winger Jaques Fourie grabbed an excellent try following a slick handling move to edge his side in front.
The tension level rose when Godman squandered a penalty bid at the other end — and Pienaar completed his treble.
Even worse was to come for Godman as he bungled another simple kick just when it looked as if Scotland had found a second wind. – AFP
