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'Anything bar their best and they really are going to be under pressure'

By Josh Raisey
Scotland team (PA)

Scotland will seek to continue their unbeaten start to the Autumn Nations Series when they take on the reigning world champions South Africa this weekend.

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Gregor Townsend’s side followed up a resounding win over Tonga with a tight victory over Australia on Sunday, while the Springboks crept past Wales the day before in Cardiff.

When, where and how to watch the match
The match will kick-off at 13:00 (GMT) on Saturday November 13th at BT Murrayfield and will be broadcast live on Amazon Prime.

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Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber talks about the ‘slow poison’ of the starting XV

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Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber talks about the ‘slow poison’ of the starting XV

Head-to-head
South Africa boast a healthy record over Scotland of 22 wins and five losses and are currently on a run of six wins over them. Scotland’s last win came in November 2010 at Murrayfield, a 21-17 victory.

Match odds from bet365
bet365 have the handicap on South Africa at -7 with 7/10 odds that they win both halves. There are also 11/2 odds that Scotland win with a margin of 1-5 points.

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Prediction

Former Scotland scrum-half Rory Lawson, who started in his country’s last win over South Africa, predicts a tight affair in Edinburgh, and said the Springboks will need to come into this match with a completely different mentality to what they did eleven years ago if they hope to win.

“I remember back to 2010 and playing against South Africa and they were captained by Victor Matfield that day,” Lawson said on the BBC Radio Scotland Rugby Podcast following the win over Australia.

“When I looked across the tunnel, I knew that he wouldn’t be coming really expecting us to do anything to them. They weren’t thinking ‘we need to put our best game out on the field to be able to beat this Scotland team.’ Now they really do.

“I think South Africa genuinely will come here knowing that anything bar their best or 90 percent of their best and they really, really are going to be under pressure and could end up on the wrong end of the result. I think the middle third of field, the management from both sides in that middle third, will be the difference next week. It will be a game of fine margins, I don’t think it will be a big score deficit, but we’ll wait and see.”

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*Odds accurate as of 8/11/21.

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Jon 8 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 10 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

44 Go to comments
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