It was by no means pretty, but if there's one positive the Springboks can take from their 32-15 win against Scotland in Edinburgh at the weekend, it's the fact that the struggle in their first match of the Outgoing Tour will no doubt serve as motivation as they prepare for the big one against desperate England.
It was a scrappy affair, with the world champions well tested by the hosts at Murrayfield in a number of areas, especially at the rucks, but their good moments, in the form of top finishing by wing Makazole Mapimpi, the Bomb Squad injection, and a fired-up final-quarter performance ultimately saw them overcome the Scots in a four-tries-to-none outing.
While it doesn't quite feel like it given the nature of that Test, Rassie Erasmus' men probably do have more than one positive to take from the game.
They have now won nine of their 11 Tests this season and will reclaim the No 1 in the world rankings this week following the result.
But for the few good hits there were on Saturday, there were just too many misses.
Real test will be England
The Boks' set-piece performance was problematic, to say the least. Their lineout, especially, was an eyesore, and they got lucky when a third botched lineout led to a Thomas du Toit try in the first half.
There was also a slew of handling errors, and despite the South Africans being one man up for 20 minutes, one wouldn't have been able to tell that the Boks were the ones with the numerical advantage considering how Scotland had most of the say in terms of possession and territory.
So, there's lots to work on ahead of the next Test against what should be a desperate England outfit.
England have now lost two from two in the northern hemisphere. Add in there those defeats against New Zealand in July, and their recent run loses even more colour.
But Joe Schmidt's team have also showed that they aren't too scared of having their backs against the wall; it's almost as if they all-too-eagerly embrace it and use it as fuel.
When the two teams met at the World Cup in France last year England - after a few dull performances - were the underdogs going into their semi-final against the Boks, yet they ended up being the dominant side for the majority of the game.
Now, the same unflattering pattern seems to be at play again as the English prepare for the Twickenham fixture.
And while England has every bit of motivation to go out there and take it to the Boks, so too do the world champions. Complacency won't be an issue, the Springboks know what they have to work on.
Take-aways from Murryfield
The game against Scotland certainly isn't one the Boks would want to use as the perfect advertisement for rugby, but the game did deliver some cherishable moments for wing Canan Moodie.
Moodie, in his first Test at Murrayfield, was superb with his kick-chasing and overall aerial game. For the 22-year-old, there are a healthy dose of positives to take into the next challenge.
I think it was a good win for us, first game on tour. We haven't played for five weeks now, so it's good to get the win.
It was my first game here, it was very exciting to play at Murrayfield. [We scored] four tries and didn't leak one, so we're very happy about that. It's like another bucket-list venue ticked off for me. It was a very special atmosphere, with a lot of South Africans coming out to support us. So, it was very special, and we got the win, so I'm very happy.
It's a short turnaround, we have got six days to turn around, but I think we can take a lot of confidence out of it. It was a tough first half, but we managed to get a good result and score four tries.
The Springboks will travel from Edinburgh to London on Monday and begin their preparations for their clash against England on Tuesday.
