Springboks get their World Cup defence off to a winning start against Scotland

South Africa left Scotland for dead with two tries shortly after the interval.

WINNING START: South Africa’s Kurt-Lee Arendse celebrates scoring a try with Mannie Libbok, Faf De Klerk and Franco Mostert. Pic Credit ©INPHO/James Crombie

South Africa 18 Scotland 3

South Africa have struggled to hit the ground running at the last three World Cups. Not here.

This wasn’t perfect but they didn’t have to even contemplate the thoughts of top gear as they left Scotland for dead with two tries shortly after the interval on a muggy Sunday evening on the Mediterranean.

This being Ireland’s Pool B, it bears contemplating what it all means for Andy Farrell’s side. Well, there were no winning or losing bonus points to be had and the sight of Eben Etzebeth leaving before the half-hour will keep everyone waiting for the medical updates in the coming days.

Ireland and the Boks go at it in 13 days’ time in Paris.

The high-20s temperatures and humidity weren’t the only reason it was hard to breathe at kick-off. Scotland were suffocated for the guts of the first quarter by the sheer intensity and speed of the South African defence.

It was the 13th minute before they managed to make the Bok 22. That was from a Finn Russell restart.

Scotland had a few clearing kicks blocked and didn’t help themselves by overthrowing two of their first three lineouts in enemy territory. A problem that would persist.

The world champions’ ferocity earned three kickable penalties early on and Mannie Libbok converted two of them to engineer some space on the scoreboard.

South Africa’s Kurt-Lee Arendse runs in to score a try.

There was a sense that the game was poised on a precipice at that point. Score again and it was hard to see the Springboks cough up a nine-point lead.

But concede and Scotland could say they had surfed the early storm and found some equilibrium for the remainder. There were moments that could have swung it either way.

Jesse Kriel escaped any disciplinary attention after he appeared to catch Jack Dempsey high with one tackle but then Etzebeth came off after 26 minutes. Swings and roundabouts.

RG Snyman is no bad replacement but the second row’s loss cuts any team deep, and in different ways. But could Scotland capitalise on that, or other openings?

Twice they came close to slicing open the Springbok defence before the interval.

That they didn’t after 27 minutes owed to the intervention of Cheslin Kolbe who sprinted off the defensive line to smother Pierre Schoeman just as the prop was taking a pass with two colleagues on an overlap to his left.

It was a deliberate knock-on but the penalty was reversed for a no-arms tackle on Kolbe a second later.

Scotland were threatening again within the blink of an eye, this time from a brilliant first-phase strike move. Russell’s key pass was zippy enough to beat the onrushing Jesse Kriel but Darcy Graham opted to hold on after making solid inroads when he had a pair of wingmen ready to take it on. Frustrating.

Still they tried. Twice Scotland won scrum penalties. The second of them was just inside the Bok half and within range of Russell whose kick split the posts with the last act of the half and raised the roof as the sides, who had almost come to blows midway through the period, trotted off.

Any grand designs about a stirring second-half were stilled within the next ten minutes with Pieter-Steph Du Toit and Kurt-Lee Arendse going over.

Du Toit’s was a push and shove four phases on from a scrum near the Scottish line. Arendse’s owed to the vision and crosskick skillfully executed by Libbok from a free play.

If you were looking at potential flaws in the Boks then Libbok’s goalkicking is a natural starting point. Still. He missed the first conversion and left the second to de Klerk.

The scrum-half, making his 50th Test appearance, claimed his but then missed a penalty from a similar testing angle. All told, they failed with four attempts.

Can they win a World Cup with that issue off the tee? Hard to see it.

The Scots will be so, so deflated at their inability to execute some basics and give themselves more of a shot. The try they sought was always a technicality, a bounce or a bad decision away, even as they fell 15 points behind.

A week off for them now, South Africa won’t be stretched all that much more against Romania in Bordeaux next week.

South Africa: D Willemse; KL Arendse, J Kriel, D de Allende, C Kolbe; M Libbok, F de Klerk; S Kitshoff, M Marx, F Malherbe; E Etzebeth, F Mostert; S Kolisi, PS Du Toit, J Wiese.

Replacements: RG Snyman for Etzebeth (26); M Mbonambi for Marx (48-52 and 55); T Nyakane for Malherbe and Nche for Kitshoff (both 53); D Vermeulen for Wiese (60): M van Staden for Kolisi (65); W Le Roux for Libbok (69); G Williams for de Klerk (75).

Scotland: B Kinghorn; D van der Merwe, H Jones, S Tuipulotu, D Graham; F Russell, B White; P Schoeman, G Turner, Z Fagerson; R Gray, G Gilchrist; J Ritchie, R Darge, J Dempsey.

Replacements: J Bhatti for Schoeman, D Cherry for Turner, WP Nel for Fagerson, S Cummings for Gilchrist (all 56); M Fagerson for Darge and O Smith for Graham (both 65); A Price for White and C Redpath for Tuipulotu (68).

Referee: A Gardner (Aus).