Sione Tuipulotu describes what it's like playing Boks away from home for the first time

Sione Tuipulotu believes the resilience Scotland displayed against South Africa on their own patch will stand them in good stead for the challenges they will encounter at next year’s World Cup in Australia.

On the back of impressive wins over England, France and Argentina this year, the Scots showed they are a team heading in the right direction once more as they recovered from periods of Springboks momentum to score four tries in a 42-28 Nations Championship defeat against the double world champions.

The Boks only killed off Gregor Townsend’s visitors in the 77th minute when Jesse Kriel ran in their sixth try of an epic showdown in Pretoria.

Captain Tuipulotu took huge encouragement from the way his team recovered from their exertions in Argentina the previous week to go toe-to-toe with the top side in the world on foreign soil a little over a year out from the World Cup.

“I’ve never played South Africa away from home, so just to be over here and experience that, I think it’s amazing competition and it’s good preparation for us for the World Cup,” said the British and Irish Lions centre.

Nations Championship

Northern Hemisphere

P

W

L

D

PF

PA

PD

BP T

BP-7

BP

Total

1

Ireland

2

2

0

0

10

2

France

2

1

1

0

7

3

Scotland

2

1

1

0

6

4

England

2

1

1

0

5

5

Wales

2

1

1

0

5

6

Italy

2

0

2

0

0

Southern Hemisphere

P

W

L

D

PF

PA

PD

BP T

BP-7

BP

Total

1

South Africa

2

2

0

0

10

2

New Zealand

2

2

0

0

10

3

Argentina

2

1

1

0

6

4

Japan

2

1

1

0

4

5

Australia

2

0

2

0

3

6

Fiji

2

0

2

0

0

“With the week we had – the long trip from Argentina, how we recovered and everyone fronted up in training – I was massively proud of the group, how we prepared for this game and how we performed as well.

“There were times that we could have let them run away with the game and we didn’t allow them to do that. We kept coming back, kept fighting.”

The Scots fought back from 14-0 down to go in level at the break through tries from Matt Fagerson and Kyle Rowe and they were left to rue being unable to get their noses in front while Boks forward Ben-Jason Dixon was in the sin-bin early in the second half.

The hosts then pulled away with a burst of three tries in less than 10 minutes either side of the hour mark but Scotland hit back through Josh Bayliss and Ben White to close to within a converted score before Kriel’s late breakaway.

Tuipulotu, whose side face Fiji at Murrayfield on Saturday, admits the Scots need to become more ruthless when on top against the world’s elite nations.

“I think we lacked a little bit of execution when we were down in their 22, particularly after half-time,” he said.

“We’ll look back on that, and it might be painful for us, but it’s something that we have to look at and get better at before the World Cup.

“Execution when the pressure’s high, when you’re away from home. They showed a little bit better execution at the back end of the game.”