Cup pain drives Scots
RUGBY UNION: The Wallabies should prepare themselves for some angry Scotsmen in Sydney tomorrow.
The Scots feel really hard done by because of what happened at the World Cup against Australia in 2015 when they were leading in the final seconds and went down to a controversial late penalty in the quarter-finals.
They reckon they should have gone deeper into the tournament. They are driven by it.
It’s a huge game for both teams actually and the Scots are all annoyed because 12 Welshmen and 10 Irishmen made the team for the British Lions.
They beat Wales this year, they beat Ireland, so they are angry Scotsmen.
The Scots are feeling bloody aggrieved and so they bloody should.
This game is shaping up to be a bit of a classic.
Let’s not forget it’s third versus fifth in the world, and let’s also not forget that in the past four games there has been only six points between the two teams.
And who can forget that shocking night in Newcastle in 2013 when they actually beat us. What a horrible night that was – terrible for both commentators and players.
As well as being driven by recent history, the Scots have two blokes in their set-up who will want to do well against the Wallabies.
Firstly, their director of coaching is Scott Johnson, who used to be assistant coach of the Wallabies, and their defence coach is Matt Taylor, who was the defence coach when the Reds won the Super Rugby title.
He actually taught a lot of the Wallabies at school at Southport.
So he knows things, he would love to get one over on us, there’s nothing he would love more.
Now they have Gregor Townsend, so they have a brand new coach on this tour.
He’s one game into his coaching career with Scotland, so he’s highly motivated and they are now playing a running game.
They are no longer just box kicking and let’s hope for the best, they are now a proper rugby team.
They are an elite rugby side, so it’s a big jump up from the Fijians.
The Wallabies are ready for it.
If we are going to make rugby good in this nation again, we have got to win this one and next week against Italy and build to that August 19 game against New Zealand.
That’s the only way we will get fans back on board.
The thing is we come out of this little window and then play two more Super Rugby games before the finals.
The All Blacks are playing the Lions and that will be physical stuff.
So that’s our biggest chance because the All Blacks will all play in the finals of Super Rugby and have the Lions Test series and we will be able to freshen up.
This is such an important step this weekend.
I thought the game against Fiji was a great start to the season.
I thought they looked really exact and that’s what you want to be against the Fijians.
Now after another week of training behind them, let’s hope the Wallabies can build on that with another win and set themselves up for the Italians and the big one against the All Blacks.
Greg Martin is a Fox Sports commentator. Every game of the Wallabies’ Arvo Test Series is live and ad break-free during play on Fox Sports.