Some notes and observations for the lads.
FIRST HALF
01:04 Darge bumps off PSDT and beats Grobbies' tackle. Div and Nortje cleans up.
01:50 Ashman over Pollard, Roos cleans up, Hooker over the ball wins the penalty
Dominant tacklers in this period: Roos, Div (at least 3 tackles), Wiese.
03:20 Wiese penalized for off his feet at the breakdown as he follows Wilco's carry in
04:24 Good tackle on Tui coming in by PSDT
05:28 PSDT spoils Scottish lineout. Roos loses it in contact on the breakaway, a repeating refrain throughout his career.
07:20 Darge again bounces off PSDT's shoulder to dominate the contact with Div low managing to stop him
Phase play resumes with little to report until Papier scores at 16:15.
17:36 Wiese's big carry from the kickoff. Great support and followup run by Div.
18:40 Roos scores
22:08 Tui through Pollard and Papier. Pollard remains massively vulnerable to a player stepping inside him. PSDT with the cover tackle supported by Willemse tracking back.
22:42 Dobie steps Edwill and Kriel, Nortje covers
24:46 brilliant turnover by Grobbies
26:17 Div breaches the line through Darge
26:30 Important sequence that starts the Scottish comeback:
Pollard lucky not to get pinged for a forward pass as he throws a cutout that reaches Edwill on the bounce. Willemse comes back inside, loses possession as he is tackled from behind by Russell. Scotland kicks deep, Pollard gathers, passes to Fassi who puts up a poor high one that Scotland gathers. Rowe now kicks deep to Fassi, Fassi misses touch to find Russell who starts a counter that takes Scotland to the 22. Nortje with a big turnover halts the Scottish advance, for now. Scotland had big numbers wide but failed to protect their carrier. From the ruck ball Willemse kicks deep and finds Dobie, who kicks to Fassi, who boots it straight out under no pressure, giving Scotland free territory.
30:15 Roos concedes a penalty at the breakdown and Scotty gets a lineout.
31:15 Scotland attack wide from the lineout maul. Rowe steps inside beating Pollard who again can't handle an attacker cutting into him. Russell steps past Kriel, shrugs off Willemse for serious go forward. Boks stretched as Ashman drops a pass that might have seen him score.
33:02 Scrum penalty Scotland. They tap and go. BJD does a pointless dive into the final ruck just as Fagerson picks the ball up, removing himself as an obstacle and exposing the tryline. Fagerson says thanks very much and scores.
36:48 brilliant turnover by Fagerson. Kick to Fassi who runs it up a bit before kicking the ball high. He runs into Russell so can't follow up, but the kick is way too deep anyway and Rowe can counter, rounding PSDT before getting it wide. Fassi concedes the penalty by entering from the side as Dobie is tackled. Scotland kicks into the 22 for a lineout.
38:37 Hooker stops Ashman on the charge wide for the second time in the half. Remember Ashman just running over Pollard earlier. Darge breaches the line through Nortje for go forward. Roos penalized for not allowing the carrier to release, Scotland has a free play. Russell drifts across, brilliantly offloads against the flow to Tui who beats BJD, draws Grobbies and Nortje which leaves the door wide open for Rowe to run it in off the offload. Bok defense scattered all over the place by this point.
End of half.
Observations:
- Papier's box kicks on point.
- Div and Roos the most secure tacklers, Roos scoring but also making some errors and conceding two penalties.
- Lots of missed tackles and particularly easy meters through Pollard's channel for Scotland.
- Pollard good under the high balls
- Fassi should not be wearing a Bok jersey, we can pull in any fullback if we want someone to just kick the ball into the air every time he gets it. He committed a noteworthy sequence of mistakes in the leadup to both Scottish tries with poor high kicks, a boot straight into touch, and a penalty conceded at the breakdown.
- crucial mistakes from BJD in both Scottish tries - exposing the tryline with an unnecessary ruck entry / missed tackle.
- Boks have not created much, playing a tight game
SECOND HALF
41:27 BJD reviewed for head contact in the ruck, yellow.
42:17 Hooker with a try saving stop on Steyn as he gets around Willemse, Scots held up over the line a little later.
44:28 Nortje finds himself in space as Scotland leaves the ruck wide open. Sequence ends with Boks in the Scottish 22. Scotland's first fatal error of the game, one man up and they allow a gap as big as a barn door for the Boks to run through and relieve the pressure.
48:05 good stop on Dobie by Willemse / PSDT
48:10 Bayliss twists out of Kriel's tackle and nearly makes the line
48:16 fatal mistake #2 for Scotland - Kyle Steyn is unmarked on the touchline, but Tui breaks back inside. Quick pass wide and Steyn would have strolled over. Next phase Finn skips Hutchinson to throw a high pass that Steyn has to reach over his head for, killing his momentum and forcing him back inside, beating Pollard. If they put it through the hands, Hutchinson draws Fassi and Steyn likely scores. Or a flat bullet pass would have done it, but Russell bends low and passes upwards, resulting in a high floater that kills Steyn. Two try killing options within seconds for the Scots.
This highlights Finn Russell's failing in this game - he is always static or lateral and this becomes easier for the Boks to deal with as the game wears on.
Scots now proceed with unforced errors that leads to the next Bok blitzkrieg. First closing the gap on the lineout costs them big territory. Then they knock it while needlessly delaying the clearance from the maul just outside their own 22.
In the phase sequence from the scrum Quan makes a good carry in contact down the touchline to get the Boks to the line and Elrigh scores from the next ruck possession.
59:00 Boks taking physical control with a huge maul into Scottish territory. The first proper Bok backline move comes, Pollard to Quan running at 12, to Willemse who offloads inside to Edwill. Grant quick ball inside to Willemse again from the breakdown, steps Hiddleston and stretches to score. You wonder why the Boks don't put pace on the ball more often.
62:30 Russell again lateral and static, boots the ball into his own man in front of him, lucky to get away without an offside penalty. Some wayward passes from the Scots, BJD ends up with the turnover penalty.
64:05 Scots penalized again at the maul. From the lineout some bashing phases from the Boks and Zach scores.
Again the Boks score a flurry of points within a few minutes.
67:00 dominant carry by Schoeman into PSDT sets up quick ball for the Scots, Cummings runs into a gap between Mchunu and Nortje, passes to Bayliss to score.
68:09 the Boks alignment fails again as Hiddlestone zips into an enormous gap between Tsituka (no idea why he was even in the matchday squad, he looked asleep at the wheel before going off again) and Pollard. Williamson busts Elrigh's tackle and Bayliss steps around Pollard to keep things going. A few phases later White steps through Elrigh, who really should have had eyes only for him, and stretches to score.
71:34 again alignment issues between Mchunu and Wessels this time has Cummings breaching the line and offloading to Bradbury, who beat PSDT's tackle to set off down the field. Steyn drops Jordan's perfect cross kick, another chance gone for Scotland.
75:38 Russell again lateral throws a perfectly predictable pass to Jordan, who is nailed by Edwill. Tui at the ensuing ruck breaks inside Wessels as another gap opens. The Boks have 5 players lining up to the right of the ruck while Rowe is the only Scottish player on that side. Probably lethal if they get a turnover, but they neglect proper ruck cover in the process.
76:06 Russell again static and hesitant and tosses a pass into touch behind everyone. The quick ball was on.
76:51 Pollard dribbles it through the Scottish line for Kriel (who does look marginally in front of the kick) to beat a weak tackle by Jordan and step Steyn to score.
78:44 Jordan beats two tackles as he runs it back up. As I said on a different thread, for me he should have slotted into 10 when he came on. It might just have given Scotland a better chance than with the passive Russell, who probably lost it for them in the last 20.
79:24 Williamson zips through another gap past Mchunu. Mchunu has looked clueless in the alignment.
END OF GAME
The Boks still play a very close, tight game. We can see it in Mozart's stats on his earlier thread. The Scots did the running. Boks had their first proper backline run when Willemse scored with Quan running at 12 getting the ball wide. We still rely on physical dominance more than anything else.
Close games like this (and this was one despite the scoreboard at the end) often hinge on moments. In this game, for me, the moment of the match was Tuipulotu not giving the ball to Steyn for a walk in score at 48:16. A 21-14 lead at that stage, with the Boks a man down and Scotland dominating is a completely different vibe and game situation. Much like in the 2023 World Cup game where the Scots had the Boks moedeloos in the first half and Darcy Graham refused to give the ball to the open men outside him to get the Scots a certain try, this moment might well have sealed Scotland's fate. And until the Scots can start taking these chances, they will keep producing the occasional upset while remaining a mid-table camper. They certainly have the ability for more.
For Scotland, Finn Russell was perhaps the biggest issue. He needs to toughen up and take the ball to the line instead of just dilly-dallying behind the advantage line throwing slow floaty passes. There were clear alignment issues in the Bok defense in the last 20 that screamed for the ball to be taken to the line. Russell, as throughout the game, never did. He sold his team short and brought an air of predictability to the Scottish backline that the Boks had little trouble countering. To his credit, his magic little offload against the grain bamboozled the Boks and set up Rowe's try at the end of the first half, but he was like a handbrake on the Scottish backline for the most part.
The Scots will be kicking themselves for losing this game. This Bok side was there for the taking.
Man of the match? I don't see how Handre "The Highway" Pollard got it, apart from kicking all his goals. None of the Boks really stood out for me. Purely for doing his job with no error rate, making his tackles, getting around the park, getting go forward in the carry and being all round industrious and competent as hell, I'd give it to Paul Div. He's taken to test rugby like a duck to water.