Two sides to be axed next month

comes back to the culture and how hard you work. That’s the nuber one rule.”

It seems that Scotland have been working on a plan to beat Australia pretty much since they got together early last month. Now that they are here and ready to play, the question is how well they execute it, says Ryan Wilson, the back row.

“We’ve done a lot of work on contact and have been going through that sort of stuff. We will see what they throw at us. They have people like [Michael] Hooper [the Wallaby flanker], who is a nightmare at the breakdown but if you run at him with the ball, he is not as effective getting on to it because he is having to tackle,” he revealed.

“We had a sit down before we left to discuss what we wanted to get out of the tour. The core group of players will probably go on to the World Cup. Look at it that way – if you start bonding people now, it will be effective when the Autumn Tests and Six Nations come round. It is a big part of building towards the World Cup.

“That is how we are looking at it – the summer tour is part of that, getting everything right, getting systems in place. And we want three wins.” The South African rugby union has called a special meeting for 7 July to decide which two of its six teams will be dropped from Super Rugby.

The Bloemfontein-based Cheetahs and Port Elizabeth-based Southern Kings are widely expected to be the teams cut from next season, although SA Rugby insists no decision has yet been made.

The criteria to consider are “financial and economic sustainability, sustainable support base, team performance and stadium and facilities”.

It is unthinkable that any of their four major Super Rugby teams – Bulls, Lions, Stormers and Sharks – would be dropped, so the Cheetahs and Kings are likely to be axed.

Australia will lose one of its five teams to streamline Super Rugby from 2018, reducing it to a 15-team competition. Australia also hasn’t yet announced which team will go.