South Africa vs Portugal: Match Report | Match & Player Statistics

July 20, 2024
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Ultimate Rugby

South Africa hosted Portugal at Toyoto Stadium in Bloemfontein in an historic first ever clash between these two nations. The Springboks, despite playing majority of the match with 14 men and 20 minutes with 13 men, managed to run in 10 tries against a spirted Portugal outfit to break the record for the highest score margin at Toyoto Stadium.

Match Report:

Andre Esterhuizen gets an early red card in just the second minute of the match. Esterhuizen had a massive collision in the midfield with Jose Lima making head contact which initially was a yellow and later upgraded to a red card.

Portugal score the opening try of the match in the 10th minute displaying dangerous transition attack. The ball gets stripped from Evan Roos in a carry and Portugal pounce on the loose ball, quickly dinking a grubber through which is collected to allow a simple two on one pass too Jose Pavia dos Santos to score.

South Africa reply with a try just three minutes later. The Springboks win a penalty after the kickoff and go for touch. The maul collapses and RG Snyman carries taking in a few defenders before offloading to Jan-Hendrick Wessels to score on debut in his hometown to equal the scores.

Despite being a man down, South Africa score two tries in the next 11 minutes. Aphelele Fassi displays his class on counter attack by collecting the kick then beating defender with a dummy and while drawing the defence to the left he dinks a chip kick over. Kurt-Lee Arendse collects with pace to burn to finish a great try.

South Africa dive in for another just two minutes later displaying great interplay and soft skills between forwards and backs to send Mapimpi down the edge. After a massive clean from RG Snyman and Salmon Moerat, Ben Jason Dixon picks and dives over.

Things go from bad to worse in the discipline department for South Africa as Kurt-Lee Arendse gets a yellow card for a croc roll.

Lukhanyo Am closes the half with a great try after getting the assist by Manie Libbok, faking the bridge pass before passing the ball short to Am who beats the last defender to score in the corner.

Half Time: South Africa 29-7 Portugal

Makazole Mapimpi scores his 28th international try just 9 minutes after the break. In similar fashion to an earlier try, the maul collapses and Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu gives short pass to put Mapimpi into space for an easy score.

Mapimpi gets his double in the 56th minute, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu collects a kick on halfway, beats a defender before selling the outside defender with a dummy to make a break and draw the last defender to offload to Makazole Mapimpi to make it 43-7.

Portugal hit back with a try a courtesy of Jose Pavia dos Santos who beats Mngomezulu close to the touchline to socre their second try.

Morne van den Berg with a creative pass between his legs to allow Quan Horn space who beats his defender easily to score a try on debut and makes it 50-14 to South Africa.

Andre-Hugo Venter similary to Jan-Hendrick Wessels, scores on debut in his hometown, after a world class 50:22 kick from Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu to set up a maul in the 22m. After it collapses, the forwards come powering through the defence for Venter to score from a pick and go a few phases later.

Jose Madeira scores Portugal's third try of the evening, picking the ball from the base of the ruck and scoring around the fringes.

Makazole Mapimpi closes the game with a hat-trick to socre the final try of the evening and with the clock in red Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu makes it 5 from 5 off the kicking tee.

Full Time: South Africa 64-21 Portugal

Match Statistics:

Metres:

South Africa: 742

Portugal: 366

Defenders beaten:

South Africa: 35

Portugal: 25

Clean Breaks:

South Africa: 14

Portugal: 9

Gain Line Carries: