The Portuguese coach, Simon Mannix, has lauded the character and courage of this team following their defeat to the Springboks in the one-off Test in Bloemfontein on Saturday.

The Springboks were ruthless as they thumped the Lobos 64-21 in front of a capacity crowd in their second win in five Tests at the Toyota Stadium. The visitors were the first to score against the 14-man world champions, but never stopped fighting until the final whistle.

Mannix said the team’s determination is something that left him happy with their performance. “We were beaten up at the breakdown, we got beaten up in quite a few areas of the game, yet we showed a lot of courage,” said the New Zealander.

Simão Bento and Aphelele Fassi. Picture: Morgan Piek

“We’ve got guys who’ve been playing in the 4th and 5th division in France and to see that, to see them exposed in front of an incredible crowd, an incredible atmosphere. I couldn’t be more proud of this team tonight and what they’ve done and given where we were, because this is pretty much a preseason tour for us. Physically we’re not in the greatest shape that we could be to play this game.

“The guys in the northern hemisphere are about to kick-off their season sort of in August-September, but a lot of lessons and we will learn and we will get better.

“I’m just so proud of the way that we tried to play rugby I thought the first 10 minutes we showed our ability to get the ball to width and to move it around, and when we do that, you guys have all seen Portugal play rugby at the World Cup, and that was a real pleasure.”

The Springbok’s next test will be against the Wallabies in Brisbane on 10 August in the Rugby Championship.

Springboks: Tries - Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Phepsi Buthelezi, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Ben-Jason Dixon, Lukhanyo Am, Makazole Mapimpi 3, Quan Horn, André-Hugo Venter Conv. – Manie Libbok 2, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu 3

Portugal: Tries - José Paiva dos Santos 3, José Madeira Conv. - Domingos Cabral 2, Joris Moura

OFM Sport/Morgan Piek