The lock confirmed afterwards that he had sustained a broken rib in the tackle on England wing Chris Ashton that left the England player concussed, and probably played a role in the try that Lwazi Mvovo scored for the Boks to wrap up the match as a contest 10 minutes from full time.
This will mean that Matfield won’t be playing for the Boks when they face the the Barbarians at Twickenham this coming week.
Matfield was probably destined to sit out the fixture anyway, as the management had always intended using the final tour fixture as an opportunity for the fringe players.
The lamentable loss to Scotland robbed the Boks of a both a Grand Slam and the right to consider the tour a success, but Matfield deserves immense credit for the way he played through his injury.
The lock led from the front to ensure that at least the Boks saved some face and ended the test match part of the tour on a positive note.
“It was a hard match (though it might have seemed one-sided on the scoreboard), and there were lots of bumps and bruises out there. I have a broken rib to prove how hard it was,” said Matfield afterwards.
“I injured myself in the clash with Ashton. It was painful, but I resolved that I would have to play through the pain as it was important for us to win this game. I just tried to avoid contact as much as I could, but that wasn’t always possible,” he smiled.
Matfield said the win was a victory for accuracy, patience and all the things that he had spoken about after the previous matches on tour as well as ahead of the games.
It didn’t always happen for the Boks in those games, certainly not against Wales and Scotland, but it happened for them against their arch enemy at a venue which is starting to become a happy hunting ground for them.
“The guys were very disappointed with the loss last week, but the conditions were terrible. Tonight was a dry evening so we were able to put it together better.
"The guys were hurt after last weekend, but we showed the character and pride to bounce back. I am very proud of the guys and the way we played in this match.”
For Bok coach Peter de Villiers, the key was self-belief. He said self-belief had been lacking after the mid-year failures in the Tri-Nations, but felt it started returning in the Twickenham match.
“We were still short in the first half, where we didn’t convert all our effort into points. But I felt we just needed to get back our self-belief again, and we started to do that in the second half,” said De Villiers.
“I think this win threw down an important marker for us for next year and gave us the confidence to go into the World Cup year.”
After this coming Saturday’s clash with the Barbarians the Boks won’t see action again until the Tri-Nations in July next year.
The Boks will be hoping they can have back some of the injured players who might make a difference to the stagnant back play that was again in evidence at Twickenham and which prevented the Boks from challenging their 42-6 record score notched up there in 2008.