SCOTS have been invading Newcastle intermittently from the 12th century onwards but this border raid had the misfortune to blunder directly into the Bokke at their brutal best. The only time you usually see groups of musclebound men rucking and mauling in this part of the world is at 3am outside kebab shops on the Bigg Market but the Springboks were the stars of this sporting stag night.

The rugby world cup really is a world in union and not only did South Africa emerge from the home dressing room at St James' Park, their green and gold clad followers colonised the lion's share of this 50,900 crowd. In the lead-up to last year's independence referendum, one mischievous poll of North East inhabitants indicated they too desired to leave England to join a 'new Scotland' but when all was said and done this corner of the country belonged to South Africa yesterday. Vern Cotter's side might have hoped for the victory which would clinch qualification but, reeling in shock and awe at the sheer physicality of this South African side, they soon found themselves fighting the most desperate rearguard action this side of Rorke's drift.

Some late counter punches were landed after this false start, but in hindsight within a couple of minutes the Scots were effectively sunk, although not by Bismarck as first thought. After an age staring at the TMO screen, when referee Nigel Owens finally discerned that enough downward pressure had been exerted, it was the veteran No 7 Schalk Burger and not hooker Bismarck du Plessis who was credited with the opening try.

This ground, of course, is usually utilised for football - what looked like gaffer tape covered the Sports Direct hoardings - and there were weary nods when news filtered of another painful beating on the once-proud Magpies. Even when Mr Owens was producing the yellow card from his pocket it seemed unable to help the Scots. The story of South African dominance in that opening period was told when their arch finisher JP Pietersen - a man who resembles Jonah Lomu version 2.0 - scored their second try of they day even as the Springboks were down to 14 players following what was described as a "soft" dismissal of the elder Du Plessis brother Jannie for dangerous play at a ruck.

From the start, there had been a suspicion Cotter was secretly marshalling his resources for the real qualification clincher, next Saturday against Samoa, a match for which the likes of Finn Russell, John Hardie and Mark Bennett may be able to return, and there probably was a bit of that. There was, however, a South African flavour to both line-ups, with the bearded Josh Strauss and WP Nel both born in the country. The South Africans, who took out the frustrations of their shock loss to Japan on Samoa, were at as much strength as they could muster, albeit without the injured Jean de Villiers and Victor Matfield.

You feared for Scotland when they came in at half time trailing 20-3 with just a solitary Greig Laidlaw penalty to show for their efforts, but from nowhere an episode of Weir's Way provided some hope. The Scots were hemmed in on their own 22 when the fly half took a chance on an intercept and suddenly found himself in a desperate 80 yard foot race to the opposite line. Pursued by the quicksilver Pietersen, he wisely discerned he wouldn't get there, ducking and weaving out to the right, before allowing Tim Visser to feed his opposite wing Tommy Seymour, a man born in Nashville, Tennessee, for the score. When Laidlaw converted from an awkward angle to make it a seven-point game, it was the first time a No 9 had been greeted by the Gallowgate with such acclaim since the heyday of Alan Sharer or Malcolm MacDonald.

"I knew it was a hell of a long way to the try line," said Weir afterwards, who made a good case for his inclusion in the event that Russell is not 100%. "in fact I probably ran the farthest way you could to the try line! It was obviously a huge adrenaline rush and I am really pleased that the offload stuck and it was a good pass into Tommy. There is stuff to take but we just need to come out the traps next week firing. It is about imposing our own game and not waiting to see what the opposition bring."

Unfortunately for Scotland, we hadn't seen the last of the methodical right boot of Handre Pollard either, nor the yellow card of Mr Owens. By the end, this 21-year-old fly half had landed four penalties and one drop goal to punish the moments when the pressure was too great on Scotland, while soon Laidlaw was seeing yellow for tackling Bryan Habana without the ball. Scotland were back to their full compliment by the time Habana touched down in the left corner for the clincher.