Stuart Hogg: Followed a monster clearing kick with an electrifying break from the deep to warm the sell-out crowd up and led to Hamish Watson’s try. Exeter are getting a bargain entertainer 7
Tommy Seymour: A hat-trick last week but did more chasing back on South African kicks than anything else. How things can change in just a week 6
Huw Jones: Treated us to flashes of his illusive running, but nothing compared to his two incredible behind-the-back passes leading to Peter Horne’s try 8
Peter Horne: Running in support of Jones brought its reward as he touched down for only his fifth international score, but found South African back line largely impenetrable 7
Sean Maitland: Like Seymour, not too much chance to run at the Springboks as the ball rarely went wide. Turned full-back when Hogg was replaced 6
Finn Russell: Under a lot of pressure from the off against a quickly closing defence. Tactical kicking was off the mark, as was one outrageous drop attempt 7
Greig Laidlaw: The one thing the Clermont Auvergne scrum-half does deliver on is being the nominated place kicker. Four from four yesterday as he kept Scotland in the game 7
Gordon Reid: Found it hard going and was perhaps not as effective as Allan Dell had been against Fiji in the tight or loose 6
Stuart McInally: For a man who is good at finding weaknesses in the opposition fringe defence he found the Springboks a hard nut to crack 7
WP Nel: Was never going to be a comfortable afternoon holding up the corner of a Scottish scrum 30kg lighter than the green machine. Didn’t creak too much 7
Ben Toolis: Some great takes off the top of the line-out on Scotland’s throw, without upsetting the South Africans in reply. Hard day tackling those green waves 7
Jonny Gray: Usual effectiveness as a first-up tackler in what was a brutally physical first half. What might be described as a typical day for a modern second-row 7
Sam Skinner: Having made his debut a week ago, the Exeter Chief was added to the back row to upset the Boks rolling maul. That plan mostly worked 7
Hamish Watson: Was the willing runner as the Scots made a sensational line-out play to catch the Boks sleeping and bring Scotland on to level terms in the first period 7
Ryan Wilson: Replaced before the hour after what could be described as an uncharacteristically quiet afternoon 7
Replacements:
Fraser Brown: Replaced McInally in triple substitution. Allan Dell: First replacement used after 50 minutes for Reid. Simon Berghan: Replaced Nel in triple substitution. Josh Strauss: Replaced Wilson in triple substitution. Jamie Ritchie: Came on for Skinner late on. Ali Price: Switched with Laidlaw after an hour. Adam Hastings: Given his chance to shine coming on for Horne. Chris Harris: Given a run in place of Hogg
Stewart Weir
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here