South Africa show favoritism after beating Scotland at World Cup in France

South Africa displayed its favorite status on Sunday during the duel between Scotland at the 2023 World Cup in France. . The Springboks beat Cardo XV 18-3 in the first round of Group B.

The current reigning champion of the competition approached this match with good humor. Their recent Test match wins over Wales and New Zealand in August showed signs of this. Of course, the result could only be opened in the second half.

In the first half, the duel was marked by the defensive work of both teams. Thus, after 13 minutes of combat, the South African Manie Libbok chose to take a direct penalty between the sticks so that the scoreboard started to move. Already at 25′ and with the same play, Libbok increased the gap to 6-0 .

The answer didn’t come until the end of the first part. In the 41st minute of play, Finn Russell scored from the penalty spot, reducing the score to 6-3 in favor of the Springboks. .

The second half would bring new emotions. Seven minutes after the resumption of engagements, Pieter-Steph Du Toit managed to break down the Scottish defensive line to support the oval in the in order to . The score, however, remained at 11-3, Manie Libbok having missed the shot between the posts for the conversion.

And before Scotland can react, youA new offensive play from South Africa allowed Kurt-Lee Arendse to score another try. And this time, Faf de Klerk was responsible for sending the conversion which passed between the posts, leaving the score at 18-3. .

In the 57th minute, Scotland rethought their proposal by making four simultaneous substitutions to stop South African attacks and try to find their rival’s defensive gaps.

This defensive closure was felt by the Africans who had to resort to alternative means to maintain the advantage on the scoreboard. So, in the 59th minute, Klerk tried to send another penalty between the sticks, but this time he ended up failing.

In the end, South Africa had a good start which could have ended with another to trybut errors caused by the Scottish defense meant that the score did not move any further and ended 18-3 in favor of the Springboks.

With this result, South Africa occupies second place in Group B with four points, one less than Ireland, who have five thanks to the extra point obtained for their 82-8 victory against Romania obtained on Saturday. .

In third place are Tonga, who will make their debut in the competition against Ireland on September 16, and further back are Scotland and Romania without units.

Note that on paper this group is the tightest in the history of World Cup members. Scotland have only twice failed to reach the quarter-finals and South Africa are the defending champions.

For their part, Tonga, benefiting from a change in eligibility rules in 2022, allows players to change the country they represent if they qualify for another nation and have not been selected for three years . So, several former New Zealand and Australian national teams joined forces to strengthen the Tongans ahead of the tournament.

On the other hand, Ireland is the eternal candidate to carry out a coup of authority. In addition, he is the only one in the big ten to have never made it past the quarter-finals.