South Africa defeats Scotland to begin World Cup defence with win (1 Viewer)

[NikolKakla]

South Africa, the defending champions of the Rugby World Cup, began their campaign with an impressive 18-3 victory over Scotland in Marseille. The Springboks secured their win by scoring two tries in just three minutes during the second half, pulling ahead of Scotland, who struggled to penetrate the strong South African defense throughout the entire 80-minute match.

In terms of physicality, Gregor Townsend's Scottish team held their own for most of the game. At halftime, there was only a three-point difference between the teams. South Africa's Manie Libbok's two penalties provided them with that halftime lead, which was slightly reduced by a Finn Russell penalty just before halftime, marking Scotland's only points of the match.

However, the defending champions took control during the first 10 minutes of the second half. Pieter-Steph Du Toit scored a try, and a brilliant play by Manie Libbok set up a try for Kurt-Lee Arendse.

From that point on, the three-time World Cup winners relied on their experience to maintain their lead. Scotland struggled to make any significant advances against the nearly flawless Springbok defense.

While Scotland may have had complaints about Jesse Kriel not receiving a red card for an incident similar to the one that led to Tom Curry's dismissal in England's victory over Argentina, they ultimately fell short on the day. They failed to capitalize on the few promising opportunities they had.

Scotland entered the tournament as the fifth-best team globally but were ranked third in their group. They now face a challenging task to advance from Pool B, likely requiring a victory against the top-ranked Ireland.

Next up for Scotland is Tonga after a two-week break, while South Africa will face Romania next Sunday in a match they are expected to win convincingly.