Four Test caps. That’s the gap between Pieter-Steph du Toit and rugby‘s most exclusive club, and he’ll close in on it leading the Springboks against Scotland for the second week running.
Get there and Pieter-Steph du Toit joins a group of players who’ve reached three figures for South Africa, a milestone that sits alongside the honours already on his shelf: World Cup winner, World Rugby Player of the Year, and now captain in consecutive Tests.
The timing adds weight. This match is being played at Loftus Versfeld, a ground Scotland have never faced the Springboks at in over a century of this fixture. The two sides have met just six times on South African soil, and the Boks have won every one of them.
JAY | JPS SAYS: “Du Toit closing in on his century against the one team the Boks have never lost to at home isn’t a coincidence worth ignoring. Numbers like that tend to find each other.”
Scotland arrive with history working against them in every direction. South Africa have won nine straight Tests against them since a 21-17 defeat at Murrayfield in 2010, a result that remains just the second time Scotland have beaten the Boks since professional rugby began. Win this one and it’s ten.
The broader head-to-head record makes the streak look almost inevitable. Thirty Tests played, twenty-five won, an 83.3 percent success rate. South Africa have outscored Scotland 792 points to 339 across the fixture’s history, with 96 tries scored against 32 conceded.
The last time these two met in South Africa was 2014 in Gqeberha, a 55-6 Bok win that also marked Handre Pollard’s Test debut. The only meeting on the Highveld before now was Johannesburg in 2003, a 28-19 home win.
Experience sits throughout the Bok run-on side named for this Test. The starting XV carries 445 Test caps between them, with 274 in the backline alone, an average of 39 caps per back, and a further 171 among the forwards.
Pieter-Steph du Toit needs four more caps after this one. On current form, and against this opponent, South Africa look well placed to help him get there.
Images via SA Rugby
