David sole

South Africa pride themselves on a physical style of rugby.

Last night at Murrayfield was not a game for the faint-hearted as it was physical in the extreme, yet South Africa weren’t the only ones playing a brutal game.

Both sets of players were out on their feet in the final minutes of the match, such was the game’s intensity and even with three minutes left to play, the final outcome was still uncertain.

In need of a converted try, Scotland won a penalty and kicked to the corner, but South Africa repelled the driving maul and closed out the game with a series of drives to win by six points.

It was such a shame, as the maul had been a very potent weapon for the Scots, but when it really counted, they could not organise themselves to drive the Springboks back.

Perhaps they should have kicked for the corner earlier to try to capitalise, rather than leaving it to the last minute, but on calls like these, games are won and lost.

Neither defence took any prisoners. Both teams were incredibly aggressive in their rush defence and from Scotland’s perspective, their ball carriers were too deep and too static standing off the breakdowns as they were against Wales.

Finn Russell, so often Scotland’s mercurial genius, had a game that he would rather not remember.

‘ South Africa weren’t the only ones playing a brutal game

Much of what Russell tries comes off and looks brilliant, but when it doesn’t it looks awful.

Yesterday neither his kicking nor his passing had its normal accuracy and his innovative offloads were more often than not, misplaced.

Instead, Stuart Hogg and Huw Jones, whose defence was called into question in Cardiff, were Scotland’s most threatening attackers – mostly when the game broke up.

Hogg was in exceptional form and everyone will be hoping his departure from the field for an injury won’t keep him out of the game too long.

The first half was enthralling. Both teams scored some wonderful tries, the best coming from Peter Horne which was set up by Huw Jones with an outrageous offload behind his back around half way and followed up with a second to put in Horne with much more subtlety.

There was also some great innovation and another wonderful try by Hamish Watson from a lineout, but neither side could reach the same heights in the second half, which turned into a bit of a dogfight.

Next weekend, Scotland take on a revived Argentina, who they defeated in the summer.

Townsend will want to finish his autumn campaign on a high and it’s a chance to look at some more combinations. The fans only want a win.