Scotland - 21 South Africa - 6  The jubilation of the Scottish players and management was, of course, thoroughly justified. Too often Scotland have outplayed the opposition only to lose through lack of discipline, or an excess of open rugby. Not this time.

Yet inside Murrayfield on Saturday there was no great or intense feeling of a mighty upset. This was partly due to the attritional nature of Scotland's victory and the early realisation that this was an extremely poor Springbok side; arguably the worst and certainly the most ineffective to have pulled on the green and yellow in Britain.

The South African coach, Rudolf Straeuli, under increasing pressure as the World Cup approaches, and having lost to France the previous week, attempted to pass the defeat off as "horses for courses", the obvious inference being that everything will be much different in South Africa next year which, no doubt, it will.

"There's always a place for traditional rugby," he said, as if the afternoon had been an irrelevance with regard to his World Cup plans - nothing more than an obligatory visit to the old folk in the Northern Hemisphere whose quaint, home-spun ways will be totally out of place in the sharp light of an African spring.

Yet this was a pretence. Straeuli knew well enough that it had been a wretched performance, even taking into account the numerous changes from the France game, the international inexperience of many of his players, and the absence of wiser heads.

By the end the South African pack was in near total disarray, while those behind committed mistake after elementary mistake.

"We were told to go at them from the start," said the Scots hooker Gordon Bulloch. "No big pack likes turning and trying to rectify their backs' mistakes, and with Jim Telfer's help we are a wee bit more hard nosed these days."

Which is precisely what the South Africans were not. Both Scotland's tries might not have been given: the cameras could not sort out whether Budge Pountney had grounded the ball, so the referee Nigel Williams went with his initial and probably correct instincts, while for the second try Nikki Walker appeared to miss the ball completely.

But both were the direct result of South African carelessness and naivety, so they could have no complaints. Only, it must be assumed, severe self-criticism.

The first half contained a bare minimum of open rugby, and when Brendan Laney missed a simple penalty just before half-time that would have put a territorially dominant Scotland 9-6 ahead, the thought occurred that South Africa may have been let off the hook, and that surely they had to be, just had to be, more creative in the second half.

It took a tremendous covering tackle by Bryan Redpath to halt a searing run by the generally disappointing Butch James when the match restarted, and this seemed knock the last vestiges of stuffing out of the Springboks, such as it was.

So this was the hemispheres again turned upside down, but it would be unsafe to draw too many conclusions.

Scotland will take tremendous heart from this win, and aim to use it as a benchmark for further improvement in the Six Nations and then the World Cup. The South Africans must already be longing for home and a chance to regroup. But first England.

"Any game you lose in a Springbok jersey is emotional," said Straeuli.

Twickenham may feel the backlash, although on the evidence of this performance, and that in France, it would be a considerable upset if England did not win.

SCOTLAND: Moffat; Walker, Craig, Laney, Paterson; Ross, Redpath (capt); Smith, Bulloch, Douglas, Murray, Grimes, M Leslie, Taylor, Pountney. Replacements: Townsend for Ross (62 mins), Hinshelwood for Walker (77 mins), Hilton for Redpath, Hines for Murray, White for Grimes (all 82 mins).

SOUTH AFRICA: Greeff; Paulse, Jacobs, Fleck, Lombard; James, Conradie; Roux, Biljon, Carstens, Wentzel, Labuschagne, Krige (capt), Uys, Niekerk. Replacements: Pretorious for Jacobs (56 mins), AJ Venter for Wentzel (65 mins), Van der Linde for Carstens (77 mins).

Referee: N Williams (Wales).