‘Super proud of the guys,’ says Boks skipper about fighting win against Scotland
· Citizen
Springbok utility forward Pieter-Steph du Toit credited the incredible Bok system for helping an inexperienced team beat Scotland 42-28, despite two strong fightbacks by the visitors to South Africa, in their Nations Championship match at Loftus on Saturday.
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The Boks twice took good leads in the match, going 14-0 up within the first 20 minutes, and were then up 35-14 after 65, but the Scots battled back twice, levelling the scores at 14-all before halftime, and were back in the fight at 35-28 by the 70th minute, before the hosts saw out the win.
Du Toit was captaining the team for the second straight match, after the injury withdrawal of regular skipper Siya Kolisi before their game against England at Ellis Park last week, and he was proud of the efforts of a large group of players who were playing in one of their biggest Tests.
In the match 23, 12 of the players had 10 caps or less, and that inexperience showed at times during the match, but in the end they walked away with a very positive win over a very good Scotland team.
“We knew before the game how tough it was going to be. So we had prepared for this sort of fight. We have the system, and for us as players we just have to believe in the system and we play according to the plan that we have,” explained Du Toit after the match.
Stuff to work on
“When we came in at halftime we said there is stuff we need to work on, especially with our line speed on defence which we struggled with in the first half. And then of course there were some holes in our defence towards the end, but that we can fix.
“All credit to Scotland. They came out and played unbelievably well. It was a tough game for us and I am super proud of the guys. We stuck to the system and finished off quite well at the end there.”
Du Toit said that the team would now take a lot of momentum and positives into their final Nations Championship match of the July window against Wales in Durban this coming Saturday, and that the team would be looking to continue improving.
“This is what makes rugby so nice, it’s never perfect but that is something that we are always striving for. So we have things to work on and we will prepare well for Wales in Durban,” said Du Toit.
“We made some mistakes (against Scotland), they saw some weaknesses in our defence and capitalised. So we have some things to fix there and make sure we are better for the next game.”