Leicester were missing their England quartet Toby Flood, Ben Young, Dan Cole and Tom Croft, but Jordan Crane returned on the bench following a pre-season ankle injury, where there was also a place for loan scrum-half signing Jason Spice.
The Springboks suffered a dismal start to their northern hemisphere tour as the Premiership champions overcame the handicap of missing England internationals Tom Croft, Lewis Moody, Jordan Crane, Dan Hipkiss and Louis Deacon as well as another eight injured players.