EDINBURGH: South Africa survived a second-half surge from Scotland to win 21-10 in the second round of autumn test matches at Murrayfield yesterday, making it two wins out of two on their European tour.
Both Springbok tries came from hooker Adriaan Strauss with fly-half Pat Lambie adding one conversion and three penalties.
For Scotland, scrum-half Henry Pyrgos came off the bench to score a try and Greg Laidlaw had one conversion and one penalty.
The South Africans will now take wins over Ireland and Scotland on to Twickenham next Saturday when they will be looking to finish off their autumn series in style with a win over England.
The loss was Scotland’s fourth straight defeat at Murrayfield and it means crucially that they will not be among the top eight seeds when the 2015 World Cup draw is made next month.
Scotland made three changes from the team that lost 51-22 to the All Blacks, with David Denton and John Barclay joining skipper Kelly Brown in the back row for the injured Ross Rennie and Alasdair Strokosch, and Euan Murray back in at tighthead prop in place of Geoff Cross.
Springboks coach Heyneke Meyer opted for two changes from the side that edged Ireland 16-12 in Dublin with Gurthro Steenkamp in for CJ van der Linde at loosehead prop and Juan de Jong taking over from Jaco Taute at outside centre.
South Africa applied the early pressure and signalled their attacking intentions after four minutes. Three minutes later fly-half Lambie opened the scoring for the visitors with a penalty from just inside the Scottish half.
Laidlaw levelled at 3-3 in the 10th minute when a Springbok forward failed to roll away in the tackle, but Lambie restored the South African lead shortly after when Laidlaw was penalised at a lineout.
Some big hits from the Boks in the tackle and deft footwork from Lambie had Scotland back-pedalling and the pressure paid dividends after 21 minutes when the Springbok pack mauled its way over the Scottish line and Strauss touched down. There was further trouble for the Scots as tearaway lock Richie Gray was forced off the field after taking a heavy knock to the head and then Laidlaw missed a straightforward penalty kick. AFP
