Scotty Lawson didn’t know whether to grin or groan in the wake of Scotland’s pride-restoration mission in Nelspruit.
On one hand, the veteran hooker was distraught after his side became victims of a Springbok mugging. On the other, he couldn’t disguise his personal satisfaction as he kick-started his Test career in rousing fashion.
Like all his battered and bruised squad-mates, he reckoned it was a case of so-near yet so-far. Now Lawson and co must somehow shake off a fresh wave of injury problems for this weekend’s Castle Lager tourney wooden spoon decider with Italy.
Newcastle Falcons recruit Lawson declared: “Frustration and pride are the words that come quickest to mind.
“Frustration at the result and pride over the performance but the bottom line is we should have won. It was a far better display than the one against Samoa the previous week when we had sat on our heels for the first 20 minutes.
“We made them look like a really good team. We did the complete opposite against South Africa we delivered exactly what the coaches have been talking about.
“From my own standpoint, I was a late call up to the squad. I was given an unexpected opportunity and I feel I took it by playing 80 minutes of international rugby against one of the best teams in the world.
“Short of the actual result, it was all pretty good.”
Coach Scott Johnson was convinced the Scots didn’t get the breaks from French ref Romain Poite or his assistants.
He said: “I am really disappointed. I thought we could have won. I would go as far as say we should have.
“There was a 10-minute period when we were down to 14 because of Jim Hamilton’s ridiculous yellow card. It was an embarrassing decision to send him to the sin bin for the type of two handed push you see in every match.
“It was handbags stuff and it ruined a great game. We are asking for consistency, but that was completely inconsistent.
“The Springboks were allowed to not release our tackled players, yet when it happened at the other end, we got penalised.”
Scotland confirmed that Peter Horne and Ryan Wilson were to return home after suffering injuries in Saturday’s defeat.
Horne lasted only 10 minutes after coming on for Ruaridh Jackson at fly-half before his knee buckled under him while back-row forward Ryan Wilson hurt his shoulder late in the first half.
Jackson though, with his shoulder injury not appearing to be as bad as first feared, is staying with the squad.
Samoa beat Italy 39-10 in the tournament’s other game.