South Africa 55-6 Scotland

Scotland struggled against a dominant South Africa side

Scotland suffered a crushing Test defeat in their final tour match as an inexperienced South Africa side ran in eight tries in Port Elizabeth.

Marcell Coetzee, Willie le Roux and Lwazi Mvovo crossed to give the hosts a 19-6 half-time lead, with Duncan Weir landing two penalties for the Scots.

Coetzee and Mvovo both completed braces and JP Pietersen and Lood de Jager, who crossed twice, added further tries.

Debutant Springbok fly-half Handre Pollard kicked 13 points.

It is the second heaviest defeat South Africa have inflicted on the Scots, bettered only by a 68-10 mauling in Edinburgh in 1997.

The result was new Scotland head coach Vern Cotter's first loss, following wins over the United States,Canada and Argentina during the summer tour.

Even with several new faces in the South Africa side this match always represented a huge step up in class for the Scots, who were also minus a number of regulars, and so it proved from the first whistle.

Winger Mvovo was one of three players to score a brace of tries for the Boks

An early offside handed the South Africans, ranked second in the world, a line-out five metres from the Scotland line and despite some strong initial defence, flanker Coetzee went over between the posts. Pollard added the extras for his first points in a Springboks jersey.

Fly-half Weir got Scotland on the board a few minutes later with a brilliant penalty from almost 50 yards.

But the penalties were mounting up from the Scots and South Africa took full advantage on the 10 minute mark, using good field position to send the ball across the pitch to the right flank where Le Roux dived over, with Pollard on target with an impressive conversion.

The hosts were bossing the line-out and turned the ball over from a Scotland throw to score their third try. Pietersen raced away and kicked ahead for Mvovo to cross for a 19-3 lead, with Pollard this time missing the conversion.

Full-back Stuart Hogg was looking busy for Cotter's side but they were unable to make any real inroads into home territory, and errors were all too frequent on the rare occasions the Scots managed to get near the try-line.

A Henry Pyrgos break through the middle earned the position for Weir to bang over a second penalty from 47 yards five minutes before the break, but those were the final points for the visitors.

Coetzee burrowed over for two tries despite the best efforts of the Scottish defence

They went down to 14 men after 50 minutes when Tim Swinson picked up a yellow card and the hosts cashed in immediately, with a driven maul taking Coetzee over for his second try of the match. Pollard, who had landed a penalty soon after the restart, made no mistake with the conversion.

There was no stopping the South Africans and Pietersen crossed in the right corner following a big switch from a line-out, before a poor pass from Scotland scrum-half Pyrgos on the hour was picked off by winger Mvovo, who ran unchallenged to score his second try.

Minutes later Pyrgos failed to collect a high ball and 6ft 10in lock forward De Jager galloped 40m to score, with Pollard converting two of the three tries as the Boks stretched well clear.

The visitors battled on with Hogg and winger Tommy Seymour offering some encouragement, but the final word went to the Boks as the giant De Jager went over again, this time from just a few feet, before Marnitz Boshoff popped over the extras for the rampant hosts.

South Africa: Le Roux; Hendricks, Pietersen, Serfontein, Mvovo; Pollard, Du Preez; Oosthuizen, B du Plessis, J du Plessis, De Jager, Matfield, Coetzee, Burger, Vermeulen.

Replacements: Kirchner for le Roux (75), Boshoff for Pollard (72), Hougaard for du Preez (30), van der Merwe for Oosthuizen (50), Strauss for B du Plessis (56), Nyakane for J du Plessis (71), Lewies for Matfield (72), Mohoje for Vermeulen (68).

Scotland: Hogg; Maitland, De Luca, Horne, Seymour; Weir, Pyrgos; Dickinson, Ford, Cross, Swinson, Gilchrist, Harley, Fusaro, Ashe.

Replacements: Murchie for Hogg (75), Hart for Pyrgos (77), Low for Dickinson (80), Bryce for Ford (62), Murray for Cross (70), Gray for Swinson (62), Holmes for Fusaro (69).

Not Used: Fife.

Sin Bin: Swinson (52).

Attendance: 40,973

Referee: Glen Jackson (New Zealand).