Monday, 30 June 2014 00:00
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PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa (Reuters): Marcell Coetzee, Lwazi Mvovo and Lood de Jager scored two tries apiece as South Africa overwhelmed Scotland 55-6 in a one-off test on Saturday.
The win completes a clean sweep of victories against northern hemisphere sides in June following two defeats of Wales.
It is also the second heaviest defeat South Africa have inflicted on the Scots, bettered only by a 68-10 mauling in Edinburgh in 1997.
Willie le Roux and JP Pietersen were the other try scorers while debutant flyhalf Handre Pollard added five conversions and a penalty.
Replacement Marnitz Boshoff, also earning his first cap, added a further two-pointer.
Scotland replied with two first-half penalties from number 10 Duncan Weir.
South Africa lost none of their effectiveness despite missing 18 players through injury and seven more who returned to their English and French clubs this week.
“We are very happy with the game, just in the 15 minutes before halftime we got a bit loose and made some mistakes. But after halftime we pulled it together and started playing well again,” captain Victor Matfield said in a TV interview.
Three tries in the opening 16 minutes gave the Springboks a 19-3 lead.
The first from Coetzee came three minutes in and before Scotland had even had a touch of the ball.
“We were disappointed with the way we started, we knew against the Springboks you have to start well,” Scotland captain Grant Gilchrist said.
“We were a bit sluggish. There were aspects of the game where we fronted up well but too often we slipped off tackles and you can’t do that against this opposition.”
