Springboks player ratings: ‘Deadly’ Makazole Mapimpi and ‘incredible’ bench shine as Springboks hammer Portugal

Following their 64-21 victory over Portugal in Bloemfontein, here is how we rated the South Africa players in a high scoring thriller.

Springboks player ratings vs Portugal

15 Aphelele Fassi: Looking increasingly comfortable at Test level. Produced a sensational assist to Kurt-Lee Arendse in the first-half, and was otherwise solid in most areas of the game. 7

14 Kurt-Lee Arendse: Produced some really nice touches in attack, including his try, and looked a constant threat in the wide channels. Copped a yellow card for a croc roll though. 7

13 Lukhanyo Am: A very good return to the Test arena for the Sharks centre. Scored a fine try in the first half, and also came up with a nice assist. 7

12 Andre Esterhuizen: Sin-binned after two minutes, and later saw red after review. 0

11 Makazole Mapimpi: It seems inevitable that when Mapimpi pulls on a Springboks jersey he scores, and he was up to his old tricks today with a hat-trick. He was constantly in the right place at the right time to get himself on the scoresheet in a deadly display. 8

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Half-backs

10 Manie Libbok: New Springboks attack coach Tony Brown is wanting to adopt a more free-flowing attacking style, and Libbok showed he can deliver this. Was very threatening at the line and was able to slice through a couple of times or put the likes of Am through holes. Struggled off the tee, though, which had previously been mentioned as a work-on, and only kicked two out of five. 6

9 Cobus Reinach: Did his job well in the new attack. Added more zip to the play with some clean distribution from the ruck and provided consistent quick ball too. 7

Back-row

8 Evan Roos: A really industrious shift from the number eight, who was unlucky to miss out on the Ireland series. Constantly got his hands on the ball and consistently dragged his side over the gain-line. 7

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7 Ben-Jason Dixon: Made plenty of work for himself in attack, and carried well in heavy traffic. Also notched himself a maiden try for the Boks. Just a very pleasing shift for the Stormers man. 8

6 Phepsi Buthelezi: A busy debut for the blindside flanker. Marked the occasion with a try from the base of a maul, but also threw himself into everything. 7

Tight five

5 RG Snyman: “The South African Viking” – as described by the commentators – brought his typical physicality to proceedings. He just got involved in all the ugly stuff to good effect when his side needed him to. 8

4 Salmaan Moerat (c): Led his side to a huge victory in his captaincy debut. Worked incredibly hard around the pitch and importantly set the tone for his new-look squad with good leadership. 7

3 Thomas du Toit: A good return to the Test arena after a decent spell away for the Bath prop. Locked down the scrum and got himself involved in the battle in the tight. 7

2 Johan Grobbelaar: Came up with some nice touches in defence, notably grabbing a turnover at a really important time, and gave a decent platform at the set-piece. 6

1 Jan-Hendrik Wessels: A solid debut on his home turf. Scrummaged well against a decent Portuguese pack and grabbed a nice try too. 7

Replacements: Most of this section will be taken up by Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu. The replacement back added some real tempo to events and took the Springboks attack up another dimension in an incredible display. The rest of the replacements also did a good job, with Quan Horn getting himself a nice try. 9

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