Scotland win try-count two to one
The Springboks recorded a 29-15 win over Scotland in their second Test in Port Elizabeth Saturday, ensuring that their unbeaten home run under Jake White stays intact. But it was not the kind of performance that would have had South Africa’s Tri-Nations opponents sit up in awe.
The victory equalled the longest home winning streak by South Africa of 13 matches, but it was not a performance worthy of SA recordbooks -- the fact that the Scottish won the try-count two-one says it all.
The Boks will know that they will need to lift their game considerably for next week's one-off encounter with France; the haphazard performance they dished up in PE simply won't do against the French.
Poor Port Elizabeth! They seldom get big rugby and then they got this.
The Springboks may just be working on a two-week cycle. Two weeks before this they had that trudging, stultifying performance at Ellis Park against the World XV. Then came last week when they played at speed and with intensity and it seemed that there was a new dawn.
The new dawn's colours faded rapidly into dull grey and it was fitting that a shroud of mist should envelop the ground towards the end. It had all been a bit of a funereal march, saved only from South Africa's point of view by the victory.
The Scots on the other hand may well have taken heart from it as they scored two tries to one, far from being humiliated. They also slowed the ball down at the break which may have been a disservice to the game, but then they did not often have to compete against the Springbok pack, several of whom pretended to be backs.
The boot of Percy Montgomery counted in the end. There was not a lot else that would have been heartening for the Springboks.
The Scots on the other hand were quite pleased.
Tough captain Jason White said afterwards: "South Africa is a hard place to come and play, but today we showed that we can compete. We are not yet good enough. We just have to be better and take from our Murrayfield performances to places like this."
In fact they enjoyed better possession than the Springboks and on one occasion were desperately close. That said, their second try was the worst bit of Springbok bungling in the match.
The Scots had had two five-metre line-outs as they kept pressure on the Springboks in their right-hand corner. But they won a turn-over. Breyton Paulse was at scrum-half and passed back to Jaco van der Westhuyzen in his in-goal area. It was not a good pass and the fly-half made it considerably worse by a gross knock-on. There was a fast ferret there and he scored. Donnie MacFadyen dropped onto the ball for a try, which delighted him.
After 40 plodding minutes South Africa led Scotland 12-5 but it could well have been 12-all, but for a tiny knock-on.
The Scots were under all sorts of pressure but they won the ball at a tackle/ ruck. Scrum-half Mike Blair saw an opportunity and sent Simon Webster racing away down the midfield. He chipped, chased and gathered the ball to roll over in Bryan Habana's tackle.
The referee consulted the television match official and the tiny knock-on became evident, denying Scotland a try near the posts. There were just 27 seconds in the half and the strong Springbok scrum won the ball and Fourie banged into touch to usher in the break.
The 12 points came from four kicks -- three by Percy Montgomery and one from inside his own half by Jaco van der Westhuyzen.
Oddly in this half the Scots were the ones who did more of the forward bashing while the Springboks tried to spread it wide, managed to get lots of forwards playing as backs and lots of clumsy handling to destroy their good intentions.
When it came to basic duties the forwards were fine at scrumming but messy at the line-outs. They had one good attacking line-out and overthrew the ball. The Scots on the other hand folded in the scrums, but were efficient in the line-outs.
The field in Port Elizabeth runs from east to west and the Springboks played into the dropping sun in the first half which did not help things like seeing and catching the ball.
Montgomery kicked two penalties when first Jon Petrie and then Craig Smith, were penalised at ruck time, but then the Scots came back, again playing from pressure. They kept the ball through rickety phases and then went left where Gordon Ross threaded a grubber into the Springbok in-goal are where Webster raced away from Breyton Paulse to score.
The second half was more of the same -- slow, slow ball from the tackle, messy line-outs and a clutter of forwards. Both sets of centres were pretty anonymous and, apart from Simon Webster, so were the wings. Did Habana really get only one pass in the match?
In the first Test in the series in Durban, the Springbok loose forwards were the telling factor. This time there were no credits at all for any of them.
Montgomery kicked two penalties on either side of one by Paterson and the Springboks got a try.
An innocent kick downfield was fumbled in its roll by Webster who was the best wing on the field by many metres. That produced a scrum near the Scottish line. The Springboks dominated the scrum, shoved it forward and wheeled it right to make lots of room on the blindside. Joe van Niekerk picked up and gave to Du Preez who bashed his way over for a try far out on the right. Montgomery's kick faded left and the score was 23-8 with 20 minutes to play.
The Scots then put lots of pressure on the Springboks, got penalties and did clever things at line-outs. Macfadyen's try was the reward for the pressure. That made it 23-15.
The Springboks had two more penalties that were goalable -- one was next to the posts, five metres from the Scots' line -- and that could also have made for try-scoring opportunities. They opted for the comfort of the penalty goal.
Man of the Match: It could well have been Simon Webster but for that fumble. It could also have been lively Mike Blair at scrum-half, but we are going to make our man of the match to the one Springbok who stood out -- Danie Rossouw who was his side's best ball-carrier, won his own and opponents' ball in the line-out and got stuck in wherever a lock should get stuck in.
Moment of the Match: That run, chip, gather and fatal fumble by Simon Webster -- it was a light moment on a gloomy day's rugby and the fumble made it a dramatic moment.
Villain: Probably the nearest to a villain was niggling Scotland lock Nathan Hines who brought a bit of Latin temperament over from France were he plys his trade with Perpignan.
The scorers:
For South Africa:
Try: Du Preez
Pens: Montgomery 7, Van der Westhuyzen
For Scotland:
Tries: Webster, MacFadyen
Con: Paterson
Pen: Paterson
Teams:
South Africa: 15 Percy Montgomery, 14 Breyton Paulse, 13 André Snyman, 12 Wynand Olivier, 11 Bryan Habana, 10 Jaco van der Westhuyzen, 9 Fourie du Preez, 8 Joe van Niekerk, 7 Juan Smith, 6 Schalk Burger, 5 Victor Matfield, 4 Danie Rossouw, 3 Eddie Andrews, 2 John Smit (captain), 1 Os du Randt.
Replacements: 16 Hanyani Shimange, 17 CJ van der Linde, 18 Albert van den Berg, 19 Jacques Cronjé, 20 Ricky Januarie, 21 Wayne Julies, 22 Gaffie du Toit.
Scotland: 15 Hugo Southwell, 14 Chris Paterson, 13 Marcus Di Rollo, 12 Andrew Henderson, 11 Simon Webster, 10 Gordon Ross, 9 Mike Blair, 8 Jon Petrie, 7 Allister Hogg, 6 Jason White (captain), 5 Alastair Kellock, 4 Nathan Hines, 3 Craig Smith, 2 Dougie Hall, 1 Gavin Kerr.
Replacements: 16 Scott Lawson, 17 Bruce Douglas, 18 Scott Macleoad, 19 Kelly Brown, 20 Donnie MacFadyen, 21 Sam Pinder, 22 Ben MacDougall.
Referee: Tony Spreadbury (England)
Touch judges: Stuart Dickinson (Australia), Simon MacDowell (Ireland)
Television match official: Rob Debney (England)
Assessor: Jim Bailey (Wales)
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