Scottish Bravehearts can raise eyebrows

SCOTLAND, the Springboks’ opponents on October 3, have the potential to be the dark horses of the World Cup.

Despite finishing with the wooden spoon in the Six Nations, they played good rugby in patches for 20-30 minutes and coach Vern Cotter will have got to grips with their conditioning.

The front five are solid and the back row alive with possibilities.

No 8 David Denton is starting to find form again, flanker Ryan Wilson looks exciting and Scotland fans are looking forward to seeing more of loose-forwards John Hardie of New Zealand and uncapped South African Josh Strauss.

Nevertheless, it was a surprise that Cotter left out Blair Cowan, a back-rower’s backrower. Of all the players left out of World Cup squads, he is the unluckiest.

Scotland’s back three looks sharp. You know that fullback Stuart Hogg can do damage if you give him time and space and wing Tommy Seymour is

Scotland have 13 or 14 good players but the rest are not up to that standard

bubbling away nicely.

Perhaps their biggest problem is at halfback where it might be useful to move Greig Laidlaw from scrumhalf to flyhalf.

As he is Scotland’s captain and their second most capped back, Cotter will want to find a home for Laidlaw, but Sam Hidalgo-Clyne or Henry Pyrgos would offer far more of an attacking option from scrumhalf. Their service is also zippier and they offer a running threat that Laidlaw lacks.

Scotland remain vulnerable to injuries.

They have 13 or 14 really good players but the rest are not quite up to that standard.

That is largely to do with the size of their playing base, but with luck they should escape their pool and potentially claim one of the big scalps along the way.

Scotland have two early games — against Japan and the US — to settle on their combinations before the big one against South Africa.

Meanwhile, Leigh Halfpenny is not the big loss for Wales that everyone seems to think.

Two options that can make up for his loss are Dan Biggar, who is an 80% plus goalkicker, and Liam Williams is a superior counterattacker.

Halfpenny is less of a threat with ball in hand. — © The Daily Telegraph, London