IT was always going to be tough against the strongest team South Africa could have put out and the reality is that they will probably be a bit disappointed not to have got the bonus point after claiming their third try with plenty of time still on the clock.

Scotland were not at their best for long periods; far too often they were trying to force the game when it was not on while South Africa were in total control, exemplified by Handre Pollard at fly half who seemed to have all the time in the world to look at what was on and execute with a precision that was missing from the Scotland performance.

It all started with the set piece. Everything went South Africa's way. Most games are won up front and this one was no exception. They had control of the scrums, taking a couple on the Scottish feed, and made a mess of the rest when the Scots had the put-in, while their scrum was never in real trouble.

The line out was a more even battle but the Springboks had the better of it and Scotland, yet again, had no real idea how to stop their driving line out.

The big thing, though, was that they were simply far more physical than Scotland. It was raw power in action from the biggest and best 15 players they could put on the park. South Africa never looked like going backwards as they hit the collisions at pace and kept going through the first line of Scottish defenders.

They really wanted to win this game as they bounced back from a terrible defeat to Japan. Though they had put on more than 40 points against Samoa, they were just as fired up for this one and you could see that in the brutality of the way they played, hard, fast, accurate and, above all, awesomely strong.

To be fair to Scotland they did stick in against the odds and never gave up trying to play, but without Finn Russell, Mark Bennett and al the rest, they had no real creativity capable of shifting the momentum of the game. The one try Scotland did get was from an interception and though they did well to take it as Duncan Weir was chased down, it was a still a try gifted to them rather than one they had created themselves.

They passed the ball nicely enough, took it up and carried strongly but there was never the same level of physicality that South Africa brought to their game. David Denton and Josh Strauss did their best to bash their way through but they could never make the kind of ground that Jode de Jager was making nearly every time he got the ball.

There was a point in the second half where it looked briefly that Scotland might be able to turn the tide and get back into the game as their confidence grew but the resurgence was squashed at source as South Africa wrestled the ball back and got back to their all-power style.

Even though there are a lot of young boys in the Springbok side – talk about Scotland's midfield being young, the South African one was even younger, Pollard and Jesse Kriel are both 21, while Damian de Allende is 24 – they showed immense maturity and calm heads in the way they managed the game. In the brief period the pressure was on, they did not panic but simply went back to the basics they knew worked for them.

They were aggressive, positive, direct and with control back in their hands managed to put Bryan Habana over the chalk again for his 61st Test try as he closes in on David Campese's 64.

The good thing is that there are flair players to bring back into the Scotland side against Samoa and I have no doubt that Vern Cotter will make sure they are all used.

It was not the strongest front row at the start, John Hardie was injured but will surely come back if he is fit, Finn Russell is needed at fly half and Bennett at centre as well as Sean Maitland. Add some bulk up front and a bit more guile to the backs and I am confident this side can still bounce back to beat Samoa.