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, with Lukhanyo Am, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Ben-Jason Dixon and the debutant quartet of Phepsi Buthelezi, Quan Horn, Andre-Hugo Venter and Jan-Hendrik Wessels also scoring.
Manie Libbok’s kicking woes continued as he put over two of five conversion attempts while his second-half replacement at flyhalf, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu had a 100% return with five conversions.
Dos Santos got a second try for Portugal in the second half, as Feinberg-Mngomezulu missed a tackle, and their gutsy showing was rewarded by a third try, this time from loose forward Jose Madeira. Domingos Cabral put over two conversions and Joris Moura one.
Portugal had earned an invite to play the Springboks after impressing at last year’s World Cup and looked lively in the opening exchanges but even with a numerical advantage were always going to be up against it.
Positive impression
Yet they left a positive impression. “Portugal showed in the World Cup what a quality opponent they were and the same again tonight,” said Springbok captain Salmaan Moerat
South Africa’s opening scores came from lineout mauls for Wessels and Buthelezi as they flexed their forward power and quickly overwhelmed the Portuguese pack, getting on the scoreboard in the 14th minute.
Then the Boks showed their backline skills and speed on the break with tries for Arendse and Am.
Am’s try came from a strong run through the Portugal defence when South Africa were reduced to 13 men after a yellow card for Arendse before halftime.
The five first-half tries were matched by another five in the second, where Mapimpi scored his three to go fourth overall on the Springbok all-time try scorers’ list with 30.
Many of the fringe Bok players made a good impression with Moerat predicting South Africa coach Rassie Erasmus now faced a selection headache as he contemplates his squad for next month's Rugby Championship opener against Australia.
