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Match Highlights - Scotland vs South Africa
By Online Editors
The Springboks have come away with a hard-fought 26-20 win over Scotland at Murrayfield on the back of a man-of-the-match performance by flyhalf Handre Pollard.
The 24-year-old had a personal haul of 18 points, scoring one try, two conversions and three penalty goals. South Africa's captain Siya Kolisi praised Pollard's game, saying it is getting better and better.
"Each game he is getting better, he is one of the leaders in the team, he helps me with a lot of things and we are really proud of him."
"Today was very tough, all credit to Scotland. You can see with their record, they’ve only lost one out of 10 games. We knew how big a challenge it was.
"We focused really hard and worked on all the things that didn’t go right last week. We made a couple of plans and we stuck to them and I think we managed the period when Willie le Roux was in the sin-bin quite well.
The loss ends Scotland's undefeated streak at home at 2018.
"It's quite frustrating. We couldn't really generate the speed of ball in the second half, but you have to credit South Africa and the way they defended," captain Greig Laidlaw said post-match.
They couldn't capitalise on multiple opportunities inside the five, turning down shots at goal to try a lineout maul which the Springboks dismantled. Laidlaw admitted that in the end, that may have cost them.
"Potentially, yes, but you have got to be brave to win Test matches. We had enough opportunities to put points on the board off the back of that. We just needed to execute.
"They went and scored again anyway so we'd have probably needed to score again ourselves.
"We are disappointed, but we need to look at ourselves and make sure we generate quick ball."
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Latest Comments
Hence the ‘not weak in a physical sense’ bit.
Go to commentsOne interesting thing which always worries me with running flyhalves kicking for poles is that very point, they're running (and tackling) means that if they get knocks whether tackling or being tackled must affect their place kicking, and why they maybe shouldn't do that kicking. Which is possibly why he's OK in training but not during matches. Maybe Rassie should get him knocked about a bit then so he can practice in that condition, or just practice kicking on one leg.
Having watched Naas Botha in his heyday reminds me - even at Newlands against Ndy Dalton's Cavaliers in thick mud - that he never ever got dirt on his shorts because he never ran the ball or - heaven forbid - tackle anyone.
Maybe Rassie should line up Chelsin if Manie has a bad kicking day, but hopefully a good try scoring or creating one.
Go to comments