Laney lays the ghost of 33 years of failure

Scotland last beat the Springboks in the year Neil Armstrong set foot on lunar soil. It was only fitting, then, that Murrayfield should have been over the moon yesterday afternoon as the Scottish class of 2002 turned back time with a momentous victory against South Africa.

In the historical scheme of things, it was a giant step for Caledonian rugby-kind and it was taken with supreme assurance by Ian McGeechan's men. Their opponents, admittedly, played like woolly creatures in Springbok clothing, but they were made to look bad by a Scottish team who dominated from start to finish in the scrum and in the line-out and who were always in control behind the pack.

Brendan Laney showed his southern hemisphere pedigree with his intelligent orchestrating and contributed 11 of the Scottish points with his right boot, the one-time New Zealand Under-21 international kicking two penalties and a conversion on the occasion of his 29th birthday. The other points came courtesy of two second-half tries, the first awarded to Budge Pountney courtesy of the video referee and the second literally handed to Nikki Walker by a stray Andre Pretorius pass in the in-goal area which encapsulated an error-strewn, ponderous performance by the Springboks.

Having lost in France last weekend, the South Africans now face the prospect of an ignominious whitewash at Twickenham next Saturday. No touring Springbok side has ever returned home without a victory. Asked how many changes he might make against England, Rudi Straeuli, the Springbok coach, replied: "There's only 15 in the starting line-up. We can't make more than 15." It was hardly surprising that Straeuli was in the mood for irony. It was his coaching at Bedford that turned Scott Murray into a world class line-out jumper. His former pupil was at his magnetic best yesterday.

For Scotland, notwithstanding the shortcomings of the visiting XV, the significance of the result could not be underestimated. It was their first win against South Africa since a 6-3 success at Murrayfield on 6 December 1969, when the Archies topped the pop charts with "Sugar, Sugar" and Dixon of Dock Green was the pick of the Saturday evening television schedule. It was their most emphatic win against the Springboks, too, eclipsing a 6-0 win at Hampden Park in 1906. It was also Scotland's first win against one of the major nations of the southern hemisphere since a 12-7 victory against the Wallabies in Brisbane in 1982.

McGeechan masterminded a series win for the Lions in South Africa in 1997 but in guiding his team to victory yesterday the Scotland coach secured a success to rank alongside the best of his career as a pitch-side plotter. "It's a special day because of the opposition," he said. "The forwards were outstanding. We denied South Africa the ball they wanted. They had to work off the back foot."

Indeed, the Boks were on the back foot from the start with a new-look team featuring three new caps, two first-time starters and nine changes from the side who suffered a record 30-10 defeat against the French in Marseille. Laney had two penalties on the board in the opening nine minutes and, with the native Kiwi shrewdly directing operations from inside centre and the Scottish pack in firm control, the Boks were penned in their own half for the opening half an hour. Laney, Walker and Martin Leslie all went close as the Scots sought to turn their monopoly of possession into try-scoring points but two rucking infringements, two successful pots at the posts by Butch James and a missed sitter of a penalty by Laney left the score 6-6 at the break.

It was scant reward for some highly impressive work by Scotland but, nine minutes into the second half, they were 16-6 ahead. Three of those minutes were taken up by the video referee, whom Nigel Williams, the match referee, consulted when the Scots claimed a try with both packs grappling on the line. It was awarded to Pountney, even though the ball seemed impossible to detect on the television replays. "I definitely scored," the openside flanker maintained afterwards.

Having already opened his second-half account with a third successful penalty, Laney added the conversion. With 31 minutes still to play, the experienced Scottish pack kept rolling back a set of forwards who were a stone a man heavier. Straeuli's side, bereft of craft or clout, looked doomed long before Pretorius gave Walker his gift of a try in the 75th minute. While trying to jink out of trouble behind his own line, South Africa's replacement fly-half flung the ball straight to the giant young Hawick wing, who was awarded his first try, on his second appearance for Scotland, even though the television replay suggested he might not have applied downward pressure.

Scotland could even afford the luxury of Laney missing his last three kicks and the crowd-pleasing 79th-minute return of David Hilton. There was, though, an even more apposite late replacement by the Scots, Ben Hinshelwood taking the field with three minutes remaining for his third international appearance. His father played at full-back in that 1969 Scottish win against South Africa. To the great delight of Sandy Hinshelwood, watching satellite-television coverage 12,000 miles away in Sydney, yesterday it was back to glorious past for Scotland – and back to the drawing board for the Boks.

Scotland 21 South Africa 6
Tries: Pountney, Walker Pens: James 2
Cons: Laney
Pens: Laney 3

Half-time: 6-6 Attendance: 58,225