(Reuters) – Winger Makazole Mapimpi scored a hat-trick of tries as South Africa overwhelmed a gutsy but outgunned Portugal 64-21 despite being down a man for all but two minutes of Saturday’s clash at the Free State Stadium.
The World Cup winners were stung early in their first test meeting against 15th-ranked Portugal when centre Andre Esterhuizen was sent off for an illegal head-high tackle in the second minute.
They were then caught out by a breakaway try for the visitors, brilliantly finished off by winger Jose Paiva dos Santos in the 11th minute.
But the top-ranked Springboks, who made 14 changes from the side that narrowly lost to Ireland in Durban last week, rallied from 0-7 down to dominate in a festival of running rugby in front of a capacity crowd.
South Africa, with seven debutants used in the match, outscored Portugal by 10 tries to three.
(Reporting by Mark Gleeson; Editing by Toby Davis)
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