Makazole Mapimpi scored another brace at Murrayfield as the Springboks saw off a fired-up Scotland in a scrappy encounter on Sunday.
Mapimpi, who scored twice when the Boks were last in Edinburgh in 2021, dotted down for another brace as the world champions opened their November tour with a hard-fought 32-15 win.
Despite opening the scoring as early as the fourth minute, the Boks had to scrap for large parts of the match against a Scotland side that lost Scott Cummings to a 20-minute red card for a dangerous cleanout on Franco Mostert.
Mapimpi’s brace and an opportunistic try from Thomas du Toit gave South Africa a 19-9 lead at half time.
However, Scotland came out firing in the second half and closed the gap to four points when Mapimpi was yellow carded for a cynical penalty.
When they needed them most, the Bomb Squad once again paid off for the Boks, as multiple scrum penalties led to Handre Pollard restoring the 10-point lead, before Jasper Wiese crashed across the line in the final minute of play, putting the game to bed.
The Boks will next face England at Twickenham on Saturday, while Scotland look to bounce back from successive defeats to the All Blacks and Wallabies when they host Portugal.
Photo: Steve Haag Sports/Gallo Images