Double strike: Adriaan Strauss scores his second try
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Two tries from Adriaan Strauss helped South Africa to a 21-10 victory over a brave but inefficient Scottish side at Murrayfield on Saturday.
A dominant first-half performance saw the visitors take a 14-3 lead into the interval thanks to Strauss's first try - off a rolling maul that Scotland failed to deal with - and three penalties from Pat Lambie.
The Bok vice-captain extended the visitors' lead early in the second period with an intercept try from long range but Scotland ruled the last 30 minutes.
A try from replacement scrum-half Henry Pyrgos got the hosts back into contention and only long periods of committed defence from the Springboks kept the free-running hosts at bay.
For 45 minutes the Scots were simply unable to match the Springboks' power in the contact areas and Francois Louw made life miserable for the men in blue with his pilfering work at the breakdown.
But in a dramatic change of roles, the hosts upped their game significantly as the game progressed and Heyneke Meyer would have been a worried man as he watched his side struggle to get out of their own half in the last quarter.
Indeed, Andy Robinson would have been mighty frustrated at the full-time whistle after seeing his team waste a handful of opportunities with some terrible decision making.
Lambie and his opposite number Greig Laidlaw exchanged early penalties before the Boks rumbled over the whitewash for the first try of the game at the end of the first quarter.
Scotland had hoped to negate the threat of the Springbok maul by not allowing it to form but failed dismally in executing their plan and were left red-faced as they scrambled to stop the green machine from advancing forward for what turned out to be an easy first Test try for Strauss.
The Bok defence looked impenetrable and Lambie could add his third penalty to give the visitors an 11-point lead at the break.
The game looked done and dusted when Strauss intercepted Mike Blair to race 40 metres and score under the sticks but the Scottish reply was impressive although not always effective.
Blair was replaced by Pyrgos, who had a massive impact on the home side's attack.
Scotland opted to kick for touch from a penalty and Pyrgos ran in untouched as he collected Kelly Brown's pass and went straight through a hole in the line-out.
Scotland had the Boks under cosh for most of the remainder of the game, but were unable to break down the well-organised South African defence, even when Flip van der Merwe saw yellow in the dying stages.
Man of the match: Francois Louw was fantastic once again and Henry Pyrgos deserves a mention but you can't overlook the man who scored two tries, Adriaan Strauss.
Moment of the match: Scotland were always going to struggle to get back into the game once they had conceded the first try. The Bok rolling maul strikes again!
Villain of the match: No nasty stuff to report.
The scorers:
For Scotland:
Try: Pyrgos
Con: Laidlaw
Pen: Laidlaw
For South Africa:
Tries: Strauss 2
Cons: Lambie
Pens: Lambie 3
Yellow card: Van der Merwe
Scotland: 15 Stuart Hogg, 14 Sean Lamont, 13 Nick De Luca, 12 Matt Scott, 11 Tim Visser, 10 Greig Laidlaw, 9 Mike Blair, 8 David Denton, 7 John Barclay, 6 Kelly Brown (c), 5 Jim Hamilton, 4 Richie Gray, 3 Euan Murray, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Ryan Grant.
Replacements: 16 Dougie Hall, 17 Kyle Traynor, 18 Geoff Cross, 19 Alastair Kellock, 20 Stuart McInally , 21 Henry Pyrgos, 22 Ruaridh Jackson, 23 Peter Murchie.
South Africa: 15 Zane Kirchner, 14 JP Pietersen, 13 Juan de Jongh, 12 Jean de Villiers (c), 11 Francois Hougaard, 10 Pat Lambie, 9 Ruan Pienaar, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Willem Alberts, 6 Francois Louw, 5 Juandré Kruger, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Adriaan Strauss, 1 Gurthrö Steenkamp.
Replacements: 16 Schalk Brits, 17 Heinke van der Merwe, 18 CJ van der Linde, 19 Flip van der Merwe, 20 Marcell Coetzee, 21 Morné Steyn, 22 Jaco Taute, 23 Lwazi Mvovo.
Venue: Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh
Referee: George Clancy (Ireland)
Assistant referees: John Lacey (Ireland), Christophe Berdos (France)
Television match official: Eric Gauzins (France)
Comments
carpelone says...
Lambie must be seen with a more dynamic scrum half. Pienaar is slower than grandma.
Posted 18:01 20th November 2012
Spartacus says...
@ben7 - dont forget Danie Rossouw - to my mind the form 2nd row at the WC last year. He needs to be back in the fold to play with Etzebeth.
Posted 15:01 19th November 2012
noord_transvaal says...
@jaystarr
ag please, HM this and HM that. It's HM's fault that a team full of stormers and sharks cannot play together as a unit. Get over HM and 'the bull's style' of rugby.
That excuse is getting a bit old. It was stormers rugby this Saturday if anything else. Lambie has never performed in a bok jersey. Your statement that HM turned him into morne steyn in two matches is laughable. He plays well in a Shark jersey but not in a bok jersey. England's going to smash the bok's next week and i bet HM and the Bull's will carry the blame again . yawn....
Posted 10:51 19th November 2012
dylbull says...
I am quite disappointed!
I thought we were so good in the first half... controlled the game beautifully
and seemed to have set up a pltform to go on and run riot.
After Strauss's try I thought we were going to cut loose, but what a disappointing last 30 minutes. De Villiers has forgotten how to release his outside man, he made some strong runs but then never off-loaded, De Jong showed glimpses of what he can do but only touched the ball a few times.
Our forwards were good, but our scrum struggled when Vd Linde came on and he missed too many tackles. Louw was immense! as was Etzebeth.
I watched the Oz vs England game and I have to say, the speed, intensity and quality that both teams produced was way better than anything South Africa had to offer. We are going to have to up our game next week if we want to win.
Posted 09:16 19th November 2012
new_j4a says...
@JayStarr, good. I'll buy you one when we beat the POMs. ;)
Posted 17:31 18th November 2012
JayStarr says...
@ newj4all: I try not to, but they way the Boks are playing now they leave me no option... ;)
Posted 12:55 18th November 2012
kybone says...
ferdie- The kick-off times are arranged to best suit the locals who will be attending the match, not so that you can sit and watch them all on tv you moron!
Posted 09:49 18th November 2012
ferdie says...
philipjfry - thankyou (not) for that image.
Admit I gave up on this match, trying to watch three games at once (by the way, great scheduling IRB or whoever does this) and cut back to Eng-Aust and Italy-NZ.
Don't know why they were so reluctant to take shots, the kicks for the corner, while commendable maybe, didn't produce points.
Posted 08:01 18th November 2012
Realbull says...
Look at the score board! Win is a win! Well done boks now for England...
Posted 07:06 18th November 2012
Wallaroo says...
And we whinge about Deans, always good to know other countries have even greater concerns. Only thing that HM has done better than Pdivvy is make less rash statements, however time will tell.
Honestly unlike Pdivvy HM could do better, but will not succeed until he does 3 things:
- Forgets his allegiance to the Bulls or the Bulls style of rugby.
- Takes more advice on selections and game plans.
- Changes captain, Strauss would be a far better option to start with.
Posted 05:57 18th November 2012
bloemboy says...
I thought Strauss, Louw, Etzbeth and Alberts were immense and well played to them. What is clear from this game is that Lambie is not the answer. A good player, make no mistake, but Goosen is the long term solution at 10. The current loose trio is not a unit. These guys are playing individually and not hunting as a pack. We need Juan Smith badly to knit that together and the best solution is to move Alberts to 5. Guthro is a shadow of his form last year and needs serious fitness work. JdV should be dropped on form alone, and from the captaincy where he has made very little impact. As for Kirchner, not as bad as anticipated, though the whole backline seems to think it can never dictate play against any opposition, except mitigating danger through tactical kicks and crunching defence.
Simply put, the Boks look very disinterested or even clueless about what their gameplan is. It seems we are waiting for our opposition to play to theirs and then only do we have one.
Posted 04:56 18th November 2012
georgesmith says...
Excellent performance by A. Strauss. This hooker is very good in general play and destined for greatness.
Posted 01:32 18th November 2012
ben7 says...
CJ Van de Linde, Kirchner, JDV wtf are you even there for? Lambie was awful but only because of HMs crappy game plan of kicking and chasing.I feel sorry for pietersen, de jongh, and hougaard who never ever get the ball.
Cant wait to have all our players back....
Imagine.....
1.Beast
2.BDP
3.JDP
4.Etzebeth
5.Bekker
6.Brussow
7.Alberts
8.Burger (c)
9.Pienaar
10.Goosen
11.Pietersen
12.F Steyn
13.JDJ
14.Habana
15.Taute
16.Strauss
17.Steenkamp
18.Cilliers
19.Kruger/Flip
20.Coetzee
21.Hougaard
22.Lambie
23.Aplon
8 of that starting XV are out with injury....
Posted 01:29 18th November 2012
leebok says...
blaa blaa blaa. Scotland are rubbish. Boks are not great at the moment but never at risk of losing even with the ref making weird decisions.
Posted 22:56 17th November 2012
new_j4a says...
@JayStarr, do you drink?
Posted 22:42 17th November 2012
runnrugby says...
Dull game....
Posted 21:00 17th November 2012
Spartacus says...
Guys, unfair to blame Meyer for this one, and a bit disrespectful to the way Scotland rallied.
I thought Strauss had a great game, as obviously Louw did. But shock of shocks, I thought Kirchner looked ok.
I think Boks went off boil due to inexperience, but showed character to hold line.
Losing to England will not be acceptable though!
Posted 20:53 17th November 2012
atg77 says...
Some absolutely horrible decision making by Scotland. When we drew it back to 10-21, we should have taken every kickable penalty and chiped away at the score. If Scotland had done that, they could have even won the game. Instead, we went for the lineout and possesion was caughed up by some ferocious South African defence. I was at the game and could almost feel the collisions in the stands. What's even worse was certain players (jackson) kicking away possesion at crucial moments (ie with the try line metres away. Every time Scotland attack with ball in hand they make ground... why throw it away? Another problem was in midfeild... Scotland is still using this ridiculous crash ball and ignoring the dangermen(Visser, Hogg) out wide. Really need to step up for next week and beat Tonga well. I don't begrudge South Africa though, they deserved the win.
Posted 20:13 17th November 2012
JayStarr says...
That was not a test - that was a joke. This was a BAD advertisement for rugby. The only reason the Boks won was because Scotland were more pathetic than they were.
The Boks have progressively become worse with HM at the helm. Think about it - their best game this year was their first game against England. In that test series they became worse until they drew the last test. They were worse in their 2nd game against Argentina than in their first; they were worse in their second game against NZ than in their first; they were worse this week than they were last week... The only exception was when they beat Australia in their 2nd game. Other than that the Boks have become worse with every game they have played - until this one, which was BY FAR their worst of the year... but against the weakest opposition they have faced this year...
Also, in two games HM has managed to turn Patrick Lambie into Morne Steyn. The way Lambie played today was not like Lambie AT ALL. Those aimless up-and-unders in the middle of the field were squarly out of the Morne Steyn book of idiotic plays. And the ball made it to Juan De Jongh, JP Pietersen or Francois Hougaard about once in the entire game... Utterly perplexing.
Francois Louw and Adriaan Strauss won this game for the Boks. The rest of them have some serious work to do - especially CJ vd Linde and Guthro Steenkamp. They were distinctly average in the scrums (against SCOTLAND) and missed nearly every tackle they attempted. What the point was of putting Schalk Brits on the field with 2 minutes left to play I also don't know.
The Springboks will have to undergo a serious attitude shift this week, otherwise they'll embarrass themselves at Twickenham next Saturday.
Posted 20:07 17th November 2012
porridge_time says...
An easy SA victory without really trying. Scotland only looked "dangerous" when SA were comfortably ahead. SA won in third gear.
Stop kidding yourself!
SA were very lucky that Scotland are mistake error prone or this could have been a loss for the one dimensional Boks who most definitely under the pump for the closing quarter.
Posted 19:45 17th November 2012