Schalk Burger: Springboks’ greatest escape? Scotland should have won
Scotland's Finn Russell and Ben White with an inset of ex-Springboks flanker Schalk Burger.
Schalk Burger says that the Springboks may have pulled off their ‘greatest escape’ by defeating Scotland 42-28 at Loftus Versfeld in round two of the Nations Championship.
Head coach Rassie Erasmus made 10 changes to his starting XV from the one that defeated England seven days prior and fielded a largely inexperienced team for the encounter with 12 players boasting fewer than 10 Test caps.
Meanwhile, Scotland boss Gregor Townsend named a largely first-choice team for the encounter with just a few players missing through injury or rest.
Ultimately, this produced a 10-try thriller in Pretoria with Jesse Kriel striking late in the encounter to seal the result for the hosts.
Springboks’ great escape
While Erasmus’ men emerged victorious, it was far from plain sailing for the hosts as Scotland bossed possession (60%), territory (60%) and forced the Boks into several defensive lapses as South Africa missed 46 tackles and conceded 16 line breaks.
Legendary Springboks centre Jean de Villiers said on The Verdict podcast: “A proper performance from Scotland; how the hell did they lose that game?”
“I think they will be asking themselves the same question,” Burger replied. “You look at the stats and think, ‘Is this the Springboks’ greatest escape?’
“Around 60% possession and territory to Scotland, 240-odd passes, 165 carries, 15 line breaks, 550 post-contact meters and they lose 42-28. It’s not even close.”
“You could see in the post-match that Gregor Townsend and Sione Tuipulotu were gutted. They thought they could win that one,” De Villiers said before Burger added: “They should have.”
De Villiers continued: “They should have, they could have, but they didn’t. They still lost the game by 14 points. How does that reflect on that young Bok team though?”
Scotland remain a ‘what-if’ team
Ex-Springboks hooker Hanyani Shimange replied that while it showed that the youngsters Erasmus selected have “composure” at the highest level and it proved again that Scotland are a “what-if team”.
“I thought the Springboks made the changes at the right time with the bench,” he said. “Scotland probably could have put the bench on a little bit earlier, but also, I always said, I even said in the build-up, Scotland is one of those what-if teams for me. You go back to Six Nations, that opportunity to win that, they mess that up.
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“I’ve been in Murrayfield where they’ve been in exactly the same position at their home ground, and they lose it. You know, Oh Flower of Scotland, the crowd starts getting into it, and they lose it.
“Unfortunately, it’s one of those things. You can do everything else, like getting on the green for two, then you four-putt and that’s what happens with them. They were on the green, and they just couldn’t get that putt in.
“And it took them lots of opportunities to get the try over, but they had moments of brilliance, especially towards the end. A brave Scottish team, but to be a great team, you need to convert.”
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Why Townsend’s men lost
Burger agreed with his former teammate and pinned the defeat on their inaccuracies in the final quarter of the pitch. While Townsend’s charges impressed with ball in hand and managed to slice open the Boks’ defence several times throughout the game, they lacked a killer edge with a 2.3 points per 22-metre entry.
“The reason why they didn’t get the result is their final quarter, those red zone errors,” Burger said. “In the first half, (Ewan) Ashman, hold your feet, carry, he’s through anyway, rushes the nine, Ben White, knock-on. There are multiple opportunities like that.
“There are about five of them. (Jack) Dempsey, knock-on with the offload from (Josh) Bayliss. Look, they put the Springbok defence, which was their weakest area, under immense pressure. The Springboks made close to 200 tackles, which is huge, but they also missed close to 50.”
