Springboks subdue Portugal despite 2nd minute red card

The Springboks ended the July international window with a 64-21 win over Portugal in Bloemfontein on Saturday.

The home side scored 10 tries on their way to victory with wing Makazole Mapimpi getting a hat-trick during the 80 minutes.

There was an early hiccup for Rassie Erasmus’ side when centre Andre Esterhuizen was sent off for a high tackle.

The Boks entered the match with seven debutants in their matchday 23 and four of them – Phepsi Buthelezi, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Quan Horn and Andre-Hugo Venter – scored tries.

It wasn’t the start the Springboks wanted with Esterhuizen getting a yellow card for a head-on-head collision in the third minute, which was later upgraded to a red card after the bunker review system was used.

Portugal had a period of sustained pressure inside the Springboks’ half and Rassie Erasmus’ players had to scramble on defence on several occasions.

The visitors then shocked the crowd in the 10th minute when they pounced on a loose ball deep inside their own before it was given to Jose Paiva dos Santos who sprinted in for the first try of the game.

Joris Moura added the extra two points with the conversion.

However, it didn’t take long for the Boks to hit back with Jan-Hendrik Wessels crashing over for a try in the 13th minute.

With momentum now on the Boks’ side, they eventually took the lead in the 18th minute when Phepsi Buthelezi found his way to the tryline after a powerful driving maul.

Manie Libbok missed both conversion attempts.

A few minutes later, Kurt-Lee Arendse scored the Boks’ third try after successfully chasing a grubber from Aphelele Fassi on his inside.

This time, Libbok nailed a difficult conversion.

After Ben-Jason Dixon scored the Boks’ fourth try, Arendse was shown a yellow card in the 35th minute for a croc roll.

The Boks ended the half with a great try by Lukhanyo Am and at half-time it was 29-7.

The Springboks kicked off the second half with a try for Mapimpi after a well-worked backline move which featured replacement playmaker Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu.

Feinberg-Mngomezulu was at it again in the 57th minute when he broke through the Portuguese defence before feeding the ball to Mapimpi who ran in for his second try.

However, the Portuguese just never gave up and Paiva dos Santos weaved his way through the Bok defence to score his second try of the game.

Horn and Venter added to the Boks’ tally with tries before Mapimpi secured his hat-trick.

Portugal also had something to cheer about in the final 10 minutes when flank Jose Madeira scored his team’s third try.

Man of the match: Makazole Mapimpi showed that he is still a lethal finisher with three tries to his name. RG Snyman was great in open play and his offloads on attack were excellent. Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu showed his pedigree off the bench. He was involved in a couple of tries and his goal-kicking was spot on. However, the award goes to flank Ben-Jason Dixon who filled Pieter-Steph du Toit’s role brilliantly. He was powerful with ball in hand and he was rock solid on defence. He was also one of the try-scorers in the match.

Moment of the match: It was a bit of a setback when Andre Esterhuizen was given a red card after the bunker review system decision. However, you have to applaud Portugal’s fighting spirit and each time they caught the Boks off guard with some great running rugby.

The villain of the match: It was a good contest. There were no real villains. However, Andre Esterhuizen’s red card was a big stain.

The scorers:

For South Africa:

Tries: Wessels, Buthelezi, Arendse, Dixon, Am, Mapimpi 3, Horn, Venter

Cons: Libbok 2, Feinberg-Mngomezulu 5

For Portugal:

Tries: Paiva dos Santos 2, Madeira

Cons: Moura, Cabral 2

Red card – upgraded from yellow card: Andre Esterhuizen (South Africa, 3? – foul play, head-on-head collision)

Yellow cards: Kurt-Lee Arendse (South Africa, 35? – foul play, dangerous clear-out); Quan Horn (South Africa, 75? – foul play, taking out a player in the air)

Teams:

South Africa: 15 Aphelele Fassi, 14 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 13 Lukhanyo Am, 12 Andre Esterhuizen, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 Manie Libbok, Cobus Reinach, 8 Evan Roos, 7 Ben-Jason Dixon, 6 Phepsi Buthelezi, 5 RG Snyman, 4 Salmaan Moerat (captain), 3 Thomas du Toit, 2 Johan Grobbelaar, 1 Jan-Hendrik Wessels.

Replacements: 16 Andre-Hugo Venter, 17 Ntuthuko Mchunu, 18 Trevor Nyakane, 19 Ruan Venter, 20 Elrigh Louw, 21 Morné van den Berg, 22 Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, 23 Quan Horn.

Portugal: 15 Simao Bento, 14 Manuel Cardoso Pinto, 13 Jose Lima, 12 Tomas Appleton, 11 Rodrigo Marta, 10 Joris Moura, 9 Hugo Camacho, 8 Vasco Baptista, 7 Diego Pinheiro, 6 Jose Madeira, 5 Duarte Torgal, 4 Nicolas Fernandes, 3 Diogo Hasse Ferreira, 2 Luka Begic, 1 Francisco Fernandes.

Replacements: 16 David Costa, 17 Pedro Vicente, 18 Abel da Cunha, Antonio Rebelo Andrade, 20 Andre Cunha, 21 Pedro Lucas, 22 Domingos Cabral, 23 Jose Paiva dos Santos.

Referee: Hollie Davidson (Scotland)

Assistant referees: Craig Evans (Wales), Mike Adamson (Scotland)

TMO: Andrew McMenemy (Scotland)