Discipline is key, warns Laidlaw
Scotland aiming to bring Springbok jinx to an end Erasmus set to go wide as new style takes shape
Push will come to shove at Murrayfield this afternoon, because something has to give. Either Scotland, who have won 10 of their 11 home games in the past two years – beating everyone except the All Blacks – will extend that impressive winning run. Or the Springboks, who have won 12 of their past 13 games against Scotland, averaging a punishing winning margin of almost 24 points per match in the five encounters since Scotland last won at Murrayfield eight years ago, will consign the Scots to almost a decade of failure in this fixture.
The orthodoxy is that which of those binary versions of the future will materialise depends largely on whether Scotland can cope with a limited and very muscular game pursued by the biggest pack in world rugby. Although Scotland coped admirably with the French and English forwards in the Six Nations, and comprehensively overpowered a substantially bigger Fiji pack last week, they have struggled to cope with the relentless physicality of the Springboks.
However, the idea that a match between Scotland and South Africa is merely going to be an attritional slugfest could be well wide of the mark. Indeed, under former Munster coach Rassie Erasmus, South Africa have moved the ball wide when the opportunity has presented itself.
That theory is supported by the side chosen by Erasmus, who says he “expects a southern hemispherestyle” game that is closer to a Super Rugby match than a Six Nations arm-wrestle. Of his monster secondrows, Eben Etzebeth has been given the afternoon off, while Lood de Jager is on the bench, the two behemoths replaced with two more mobile locks in Franco Mostert and RG Snyman. South Africa also have an adventurous back three in the shape of Willie le Roux, S’bu Nkosi and Aphiwe Dyantyi.
“When you look at them in detail, they’re actually playing a fair bit more front-line rugby, going out the back a bit more and trying to play with more width,” said Scotland assistant coach Danny Wilson. “I think they’ve developed their game under Erasmus, adding another dimension to their powerbased game. Maybe in the past they haven’t gone wide very often, but they’re doing it now.”
Although Scotland have beefed up their scrum considerably from the pack who faced Fiji, it would suit them to play a wider game, where the visitors’ superior tonnage would be less likely to tell. However, for that to happen and for Scotland to beat South Africa – an outcome that head coach Gregor Townsend says would be their biggest win during his tenure – captain Greig Laidlaw believes Scotland need to show self-control.
“It all comes back to discipline,” he said. “Any time you play a South African team you’ve got to meet fire with fire, but we also need to hold discipline as well – that’s going to be key. We don’t want to be giving away anything cheaply through our forwards or through the scrum.”
Like beating the Springboks, however, that may be easier said than done.