South Africa’s end-of-year tour is up and running. They weathered a Scottish barrage early in the second half before the power of their ‘Bomb Squad’ replacements, especially at the scrum, put the lively hosts away.

Makazole Mapimpi scored two tries as world champions South Africa returned to the top of the world rankings with a 32-15 win over Scotland at Murrayfield on Sunday. Scotland came in to this match fresh from thrashing Fiji 57-17 at Murrayfield last weekend but having lost 18-3 to South Africa when they last played the Springboks at the 2023 World Cup in France.

The Springboks, who also scored tries through prop Thomas du Toit and number eight Jasper Wiese, will regain the world number one ranking from Ireland with the victory. They made 11 changes for the match and looked disjointed, not helped by 21 handling errors that broke their momentum.

Gregor Townsend hails Scotland after battling Murrayfield defeat to South Africa - Scotland closed gap to four points in second-half but could not pull off famous win

South Africa eventually pulled away in the closings stages to seal their ninth consecutive victory over Scotland.