KEY POINTS:
EDINBURGH - South Africa ran in three first-half tries on their way to a morale-boosting 27-3 World Cup warm-up win over Scotland at Murrayfield over night.
The Scots had dominated in the opening quarter only to be floored by a burst of three Springbok tries in six dramatic minutes.
And while the home brigade produced some excellent rugby, there was never a prospect of them recovering from such a devastating sequence.
In terms of possession and territory, the sides were on an equal footing - but when it came to turning chances into points, South Africa were a much more classy and clinical outfit.
Despite the ideal conditions, the opening exchanges were messy and frantic with both sides making mistakes galore.
The Scots were the first to launch a raid as Nikki Walker latched on to a clever offload from Rory Lamont.
Winger Walker opted to chip into space behind full-back Percy Montgomery, but his kick was too strong and it flew directly out of play.
Walker was immediately back in the spotlight, spilling an up-and-under by Fourie du Preez on the 22-metre line.
Scotland recovered their composure to set up another promising series of attacks. The good work was again spoiled, however, as another cross-kick over Montgomery was too heavily-weighted - this time Andy Henderson being the culprit.
The home side maintained the early pressure with a surge featuring Kelly Brown and their persistence paid off as Chris Paterson landed a straightforward penalty.
Paterson's strike acted as a wake-up call to the visitors and they began to string together some potent-looking phases.
But they also had to be content with three points for their efforts, with Montgomery slotting a kick as easy as Paterson's.
There was controversy in the 15th minute when French referee Christophe Berdos opted to turn a blind eye to a blatant high challenge by Springbok playmaker Butch James on Lamont.
James appeared to have employed stiff-arm tactics, but to the fury of the bulk of the 30,000 crowd, play was allowed to continue.
South African cult hero Schalk Burger then burst into the game with a trademark 30-metre gallop up the centre of the pitch.
But his endeavours came to nothing when the Boks were guilty of a rucking offence a few seconds later.
They kept up the momentum to snatch the opening try midway through the half.
Winger Bryan Habana caught the Scottish fringe defence on the hop to cruise in under the crossbar in the wake of a scrum.
Habana came racing through as an extra stand-off and was unstoppable from 10 metres with Paterson fatally out of position.
The South Africans added to their tally just five minutes later.
Paterson was again at fault as his risky ploy of unloading in his own danger zone was punished - Jaque Fourie beating off the attentions of Lamont to finish from close range.
And the match was effectively ended as a contest when the Boks broke through yet again.
This time the score came as a result of their own skills rather than Scotland's failings.
Slick short-passing enabled Montgomery to get to within a couple of strides of the line before du Preez squeezed over. Montgomery banged over his third conversion in quick succession.
The initial stages of the second half became another sparring session as both sides began to make bench changes.
Much of the action was confined to the middle portion of the pitch - until danger-man Habana burst back into the picture.
He set off on a mazy run towards the corner and looked certain to score. However, a brilliant cover-tackle by Lamont foiled him five metres short of the target.
The Boks remained on the offensive and they stretched their advantage by three points, thanks to another short-range penalty from the dependable boot of Montgomery.
Scotland were still seeing plenty of the ball, but a combination of stout Springbok marking and a lack of penetration prevented them from making a significant impact.
- AFP
