A heroic but predictable ending as Scotland fall to South Africa’s size

Rough and tumble World Cup clash suited Eben Etzebeth and company, with Scotland sucked into playing opponent’s game

It must be something about Marseille. For the second day running the city hosted a right rough-and-tumble game of rugby. It looked, for long stretches, less like a match than something dark going on down a back alley after hours in the old port, the sort of thing which you might cross the street to avoid. At one point it really did break out into a fight, when Ben White bundled Damian de Allende into touch and everyone came wading in after them. The Scotland captain, Jamie Ritchie, raced across to make his point and suddenly found himself in the unfortunate position of having to square off against Eben Etzebeth.

Ritchie is 6ft 3in and 17st, but Etzebeth still towers overs him. He fixed him by the scruff and shot him the sort of malicious grin he might give a cow he was planning to eat for dinner later that evening. Ritchie, to be fair to him, glared back like he wanted Etzebeth to know he was welcome to try. Brave as it was, the moment rather summed it all up. It felt very much like Scotland got sucked into trying to play South Africa at their own game, which, just look at the size of them, was only ever going to be a mistake.