The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Scotland on short rest for World Cup clash with host nation
Scotland got a backlash from the 2019 Rugby World Cup schedulers, writes Steve Scott.
They will face the pool top seeds in their first game and will have precious little recovery time for the final group match against Japan.
The Scots, in Pool A, play top seeds Ireland on September 22 in their tournament opener, in the International Stadium in Yokohama, which is also the venue for the final.
They return to Yokohama for their final pool game against hosts Japan on October 13, but with just four days of recovery time from their penultimate match against the Europe 1 qualifier – most likely to be Romania or Spain.
This might be mere coincidence but it’s notable that it was Japan who had the short recovery in the last tournament in England in 2015 before playing Scotland.
Just four days after their nowlegendary 34-32 victory over South Africa in Brighton, the Japanese – then under the current England coach Eddie Jones – were routed 45- 10 by a fresh Scotland at Gloucester.
Scotland head coach Steve McCormack is urging his team to front up when they take on New Zealand in their next World Cup match tomorrow.
The Bravehearts are licking their wounds from a 50-4 hammering by Tonga in their opening Group B match and, having moved on to Christchurch, are now looking to pull off what would be the biggest upset in World Cup history.
“Tonga are a world-class team and we let them play in the first half,” said McCormack, whose side trailed 38-0 at the break. “What we’ve got to remember is that we’re a very young team, with a lot of experience missing.
“But I was really proud of how we fronted up in the second half and we need to make sure we start against New Zealand like we finished against Tonga.”
McCormack is playing down any talk of revenge by the Kiwis for their 18-18 draw in their last meeting with the Scots in Workington, which amounted to a humiliating result in the 2016 Four Nations Series.
“That’s gone now,” he said. “They will look forward. They’ve got higher expectations when you put a Kiwi jumper on.
“From our point of view, we haven’t spoken about last year and I’m sure David Kidwell has not done either.
“Coming into the tournament a few people wrote New Zealand off, but we certainly didn’t. I thought they were really good against Samoa.”
McCormack is set to give debuts to Brandon Wilkinson and Jarred Anderson while Addin Fonua-Blake will win his first cap for the Kiwis and 22-year-old playmaker Te Maire Martin will start his first Test match after making his debut off the bench at Workington last November.