Scotland stars proud but frustrated after defeat to Springboks

Scotland’s stars took pride in their performance against world champions South Africa but admitted they had missed a chance for a statement victory.

The Springboks won 32-15 at Murrayfield on Sunday, but the scoreline didn’t fully reflect the match. Scotland was within four points at one stage in the second half before a late surge from the visitors.

The home support saw Scotland create plenty of chances to score tries but fail to get them over the line.

Sione Tuipulotu saw plenty of positives from the performance but shared frustrations over what he saw as a good chance to claim a notable win against a big side.

“I’m proud of the boys and the performance they put out,” he said. “Especially in the forward pack where a lot of the guys had to play big minutes and I thought they really fronted up physically.

“I’m proud but just disappointed we didn’t win today.

“We put ourselves in positions to score tries, and I think the last bit of execution let us down today, especially in the finish zone.

“We were down there for big parts of that second half but we didn’t walk away with tries that we should have had.

“We’ve got to take responsibility for that. The game was there to be won, and we didn’t execute.”

South Africa inflicted an 18-3 defeat on Scotland on their road to World Cup glory just over a year ago. Despite a similar outcome in Edinburgh, Tuipulotu believes progress has been made.

“I definitely think there’s been growth since how we performed against the same team at the World Cup,” he said.

“I thought there were so many growth areas in how we played. Our ability not to get frustrated when we were down with that red card, also a few ref calls that went their way.

“I thought we showed emotional maturity through tough moments and they’re a big part of what we’re trying to get better at.”

Ewan Ashman said the difference was down to “fine margins” and an ability to take chances when they come.

“We probably won’t have another crack at them for two or three years,” he said. “The boys created a lot of opportunities out there . I think we let it slip and didn’t convert when we needed to.

“I’m proud. For 60 minutes we went toe to toe with the Springboks and we just didn’t convert. That’s the key difference in these big games against the top, top teams.

“It’s fine margins.”

For Matt Fagerson, there was similar frustration but the number eight took particular pride in how Scotland had matched up physically against a side famous for their dominance in those sorts of battles.

“I think it was a valiant effort in terms of physicality and work rate,” Fagerson said. “We fronted up well against their forward pack. We created a lot but just couldn’t finish it off.

“They kept coming round the corner in the second half and I think we dealt with it really, really well. There were some big collisions.

“From that point of view, it’s something that we pride ourselves on and work really hard on.

“I think that showed today and it’s something we’ve been working on over the last couple of years.

“This showed that we’ve made great strides in that area.”

With two more Autumn Tests to go, and with the team working towards the Six Nations in February, Fagerson says it’s clear what Scotland need to do.

“I think we’ve just got to be more patient when we get into the 22 and finish off these chances,” he said.

“We’ll go back and have a look at it but we’ve got two massive games now against Portugal and Australia to right the wrongs.”