SPOTLIGHT: Scotland coach Gregor Townsend has had three weeks of ‘prime time’ analyses of South Africa’s top players, ahead of their much-anticipated rematch with the Springboks on November 10.
It is 14 months, to the day, since the Boks beat the Scots 18-3 in a World Cup pool match in Stade Vélodrome in Marseille.
Scotland has had a mixed bag in the Six Nations – beating Wales and England, but losing to France, Italy and Ireland.
South Africa, in contrast, has had two one-point losses to Ireland and Argentina, but won the Rugby Championship by beating New Zealand and Australia twice.
The Scotland coach, Townsend, would have analysed South Africa’s Southern Hemisphere campaign, but also had a close look at the last month of the United Rugby Championship.
Some of his best players experienced the brutality of the Springbok game in the URC – with mixed results.
In Round Five, the defending champions Glasgow Warriors suffered a narrow 24-28 loss to the Bok-laden Sharks team in Durban, and a week later, they recorded a 28-17 win over the Stormers in Stellenbosch.
At Kings Park the Warriors fronted up to a team that featured 11 players who made the Springboks’ year-end tour squad – Vincent Koch, Ox Nche, Bongi Mbonambi, Eben Etzebeth, Siya Kolisi (captain), Jaden Hendrikse, Grant Williams, Lukhanyo Am, Andre Esterhuizen, Aphelele Fassi, Makazole Mapimpi.
At the Danie Craven Stadium this past weekend the Stormers had some big hitters as well – Damian Willemse (injured and withdrawn), Manie Libbok, Ben-Jason Dixon (not in the squad) and Frans Malherbe.
The other Scottish franchise, Edinburgh, also had a tough trip to South Africa in Rounds Two and Three – losing 16-22 to the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld and 21-55 to the Lions at Ellis Park, before beating the Stormers 38-7 in the Scottish capital.
Their opponents included the Bulls’ collection of Bok tour squad members like Wilco Louw, Gerhard Steenekamp, Johan Grobbelaar, Ruan Nortje, Cameron Hanekom, Elrigh Louw, Marco van Staden and Willie le Roux.
New Scotland captain Sione Tuipulotu, Zander Fagerson, Richie Gray, Scott Cummings, Matt Fagerson, Huw Jones and Kyle Rowe featured prominently for the Warriors in the trip to the Republic.
Pierre Schoeman, Jamie Ritchie, Ali Price, Duhan van der Merwe and Ben Healy were the cement in the Edinburgh touring squad.
This has allowed Townsend two premium opportunities to analyse key players in the Bok set-up.
(Franco Smith and Huw Jones on Scotland versus South Africa….)
“I know Gregor [Townsend] well enough to know that he would have studied this [two Scottish franchises’ trips to SA],” Warriors coach and Springbok Franco Smith told @rugby365com.
“I will be overstepping my line if I tell you exactly what those pointers are,” he quipped.
“The guys’ hearts and heads are into performing well,” Smith said, adding: “The confidence they currently have and the physical preparations will help them to best executive very well whatever plan they [Scotland] decide on.”
Glasgow Warriors centre Huw Jones, a man who played for False Bay club and UCT Ikey Tigers in the Varsity Cup, has an intimate knowledge of the South African set-up.
With 50-odd games for Western Province and the Stormers, he is well-equipped to understand the Challenge that awaits on October 10.
He did not play against the Sharks, but was central to the Warriors’ win in Stellenbosch this past weekend.
“I know a number of the players well and I have played against the Springboks a couple of times,” he said, adding: “We all know what to expect.
“We have better preparation,” he said of their encounter with Fiji at Murrayfield this coming Saturday.
“The Scotland coach [Townsend] has it in hand [under control] and they would have been trawling through all the footage and have a plan.
“We just have to go and execute it.”
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