Boks too slick for Scots
A devastating three-try burst in six first-half minutes set South Africa on their way to a comfortable 27-3 victory over Scotland at Murrayfield.
By Mark Kendall
Last Updated: 26/08/07 9:24am
A devastating three-try burst in six first-half minutes set up South Africa for a comfortable 27-3 victory over Scotland at Murrayfield.
Frank Hadden's side made a promising start to the encounter and moved ahead courtesy of an early Chris Paterson penalty, but the visitors came roaring back and once Brian Habana, Jaque Fourie and Fourie du Preez had all crossed midway through the opening 40 minutes the result was never in doubt.
Sale Sharks back Rory Lamont was very much to the fore in Scotland's impressive and aggressive start.
The full-back showed pace, strength and no little confidence as he attacked with some cavalier bursts that quite clearly rattled the Springboks.
One such resulted in the first score of the game on ten minutes as he helped win a penalty that Paterson - operating at fly-half - calmly slotted from in front of the posts to move the hosts ahead.
However, that was as good as things got for Scotland as South Africa stepped up a gear seemingly at will to take a stranglehold on the game.
Three quickfire tries
They moved ahead with the simplest of tries on 21 minutes as, from a scrum some fifteen metres from the Scotland line, Danie Rossouw fed Habana who had sneaked in unnoticed from his wing to collect from the number eight, glide past Dave Callam at will and dive under the posts unchallenged.
Percy Montgomerie added the extras and soon after he was doing the same as Jaque Fourie claimed his side's second score.
A handling error on his own 22 by Paterson was seized upon by Francois Steyn whose pass released Fourie and the centre showed good strength to hold off a couple of would-be tacklers to touch the ball down.
Just a further two minutes had elapsed before the visitors all but wrapped up the game with their third try, busy scrum-half Fourie du Preez reacting well to scoop up the ball and slide over from close range after Mike Blair had done superbly to bring down Montgomerie just short of the line.
Scotland huffed and puffed in the second period but struggled to make much impact on a typically physical and well-drilled South African defensive unit.
Indeed, they were indebted to Lamont on 47 minutes as he produced a tremendous last-ditch tackle to haul down Habana, who seemed set to accelerate away for his second try of the afternoon.
Montgomerie did extend the lead with a penalty on 51 minutes but there were no further scores as the game lost some of its shape with both sides tiring in the closing stages.