Beware the wounded Springbok. South Africa had looked perhaps mortally wounded by their shattering loss to Japan, but have channelled their shame into an ominous defiance. After their trouncing of Samoa, they swatted the Scots with another compelling exhibition of power in the pack, and could look towards the quarter-finals as a side rejuvenated. It was a result to reacquaint Vern Cotter’s Scotland team with harsher truths ahead, but their battalions of supporters refused to be too crestfallen. This has been a World Cup to captivate every corner of the kingdom, from Exeter in the south-west to Newcastle in the north-east, and the armies in blue were not about to let one defeat frustrate their more pressing task of drinking Tyneside dry.