The Springboks managed a hollow 29-25 victory over Scotland at Durban's ABSA Stadium, but it could have been so different had the home team not launched a spirited fightback in the final quarter of the match against the adventurous Scots.
Scotland dominated the first 60 minutes of the match and will be kicking themselves all the way to Johannesburg for throwing away a match they deserved to win.
As was the case at Murrayfield last year it was more a case of the Boks making their opponents look like world-beaters on the day, but credit must go to Bryan Redpath and his men for taking their try-scoring chances.
The visitors had at one stage outscored their hosts by three tries to nothing as they gave the South Africans a lesson in playing as a unit on attack, with their blanket-like defence also giving the Boks no room to move in.
The Boks, on the other hand, seemed incapable of tackling, allowing the Scottish runners oodles of space on attack. To add to their woes they were unable to hold onto the ball as they made a huge amount of handling errors in the first 60 minutes. And, when they did hold onto the ball, their awkward body positions made them easy-pickings for the fired-up Scotland defenders.
With just 20 minutes remaining, Scotland held a 25-12 lead, with all SA's points having come from the boot of their fly-half Louis Koen. Scotland's points, on the other hand, had come from two converted tries, one unconverted try and two penalties, silencing the moderate SA-heavy crowd at the ABSA Stadium.
But a try from experienced winger Stefan Terblanché in the 61st minute saw the Boks begin a comeback, with Koen's conversion narrowing the scoreline to 25-19.
Another Koen penalty took the scoreline to 25-22 as the Boks began to hold onto the ball, forcing Scotland to commit more defenders and just a few minutes later the home team forced another penalty, giving Koen the chance to level the scores.
Amazingly, the usually clinical Koen missed the relatively simple kick at goal, with the ball hitting the left-hand upright and falling into debutant Hendrik Gerber's hands.
Gerber went to ground and although his support was slow to get there, he had done enough to secure possession. Koen was the first man there, he fired the ball out to acting fly-half Victor Matfield, who in turn threw out a long ball to Trevor Halstead, thumping a would-be tackler Glenn Metcalfe out of the way en route to the tryline.
Koen nailed the tricky conversion and at 29-25 the Scots had to score a try to regain the lead they had held since the 14th minute of the match.
In the end it was not to be for Scotland as they launched a massive raid on the Bok goalline, only for the SA defence to hold up well around the fringes under trying circumstances.
Scotland forced a string of penalties from close-in, with the Boks also having to survive the last 30 seconds of the game without their skipper Joost van der Westhuizen, who was yellow-carded for a professional foul.
Springbok coach Rudolf Straeuli was disappointed with his overall team's showing, but was at pains to stress that the win -- after three successive losses in November last year -- was all that mattered.
Perhaps somebody should point out that this same Scotland team suffered huge losses to England, Ireland and France during the 2003 Six Nations, with eight-point home wins over Wales and Italy their only success.
Man of the match: From the Springbok side Louis Koen gets a mention here, simply because of his 19-point haul, with the rest of our contenders all coming from the Scottish side. Locks Scott Murray and Nathan Hines were superb, No.8 Simon Taylor showed why he is a British and Irish Lion, Redpath led his side well and wing Chris Paterson showed plenty of skill on attack and composure when kicking at goal. In the end, Planet Rugby's vote goes to Nathan Hines, for a commanding line-out showing and a rousing performance in the loose, just edging out his second row partner Scott Murray.
Moment of the match: Paterson's try in the 47th minute was a beauty, with wing Kenny Logan and centre Andy Craig doing excellent work in the build-up. But our moment was Koen's penalty miss in the 72nd minute, which saw the ball rebound into Hendrik Gerber's hands before eventually ending up over the tryline and in Trevor Halstead's hands. Before Halstead's try the score was at 25-22 in Scotland's favour. The penalty would have tied the scores and given Scotland the chance of kicking a penalty to win. Instead the converted try had the Scots playing catch-up for the final few heart-stopping moments.
Villain of the match: The entire Springbok team until the 60th minute. They played like a bunch of amateurs until they finally got their act together thanks to tries from Terblanché and Halstead, and, of course, two conversions from Koen. There would have been hell to play had they lost to Scotland ...
The Teams:
South Africa: 1 Richard Bands, 2 Danie Coetzee, 3 Lawrence Sephaka, 4 Victor Matfield, 5 Bakkies Botha, 6 Hendrik Gerber, 7 Wikus Van Heerden, 8 Pedrie Wannenburg, 9 Joost Van Der Westhuizen (c), 10 Louis Koen, 11 Ashwin Willemse, 12 Trevor Halstead, 13 Andre Snyman, 14 Stefan Terblanche, 15 Ricardo Loubscher
Reserves: Jaco Van Der Westhuyzen, Juan Smith, Selborne Boome, Robbie Kempson, Cobus Visagie
Unused: Craig Davidson, Gcobani Bobo
Scotland: 1 Bruce Douglas, 2 Gordon Bulloch, 3 Gavin Kerr, 4 Nathan Hines, 5 Scott Murray, 6 Andrew Mower, 7 Jason White, 8 Simon Taylor, 9 Bryan Redpath (c), 10 Gregor Townsend, 11 Kenny Logan, 12 Andrew Craig, 13 Andrew Henderson, 14 Chris Paterson, 15 Glenn Metcalfe
Reserves: Jon Petrie, Martin Leslie, James McLaren, Robbie Russell
Unused: Michael Blair, Gordon McIlwham, Gordon Ross
Attendance: 37528
Referee: Jutge j.
Points Scorers:
South Africa
Tries: Terblanche C.S. 1, Halstead T.M. 1
Conv: Koen L.J. 2
Pen K.: Koen L.J. 5
Scotland
Tries: Paterson C.D. 1, Craig A. 1, White J.P.R. 1
Conv: Paterson C.D. 2
Pen K.: Paterson C.D. 2
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