The Gregor Townsend verdict on the Springboks and the challenge Scotland face

Gregor Townsend has challenged his Scotland players to deliver a performance that gives them a fighting chance of glory in one of the flagship games of their career in Pretoria this weekend.

The Scots are huge underdogs as they prepare to face South Africa away from home for the first time in 12 years in Saturday’s Nations Championship showdown at Loftus Versfeld.

“None of the 23 have played a test match against the Springboks out here and to do it when they’re world champions, it’s obviously a game that will stand out in most of the players’ careers,” said head coach Townsend, who has added talismanic fly-half Finn Russell and influential forwards Zander Fagerson and Gregor Brown to his starting XV.

“You get those big challenges in your career, whether it’s finals for your club, whether it’s massive games in the Six Nations and World Cup, but also those one-off games that you don’t get to play very often.

“In our case, it’s the only occasion we play the Springboks (away) with this squad, so those are the ones where you get that extra edge in your preparation. I can’t wait for our players to go in there and I’m sure they’re looking forward to it too.

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“We’re definitely going to be up against it physically and we’re going to relish those challenges. You know what’s happening when you play the Boks.

“They’re going to be really physical in their defence, they’re going to come at you. There’s going to be times in the game where they get the upper hand.

“I would hope that there’ll be times in the game when we cause them problems, so it’s about building on those and making sure that when the momentum is in the favour of South Africa, we can wrestle it back quickly.

“Nothing beats the experience of going up against the leading side in the world. It’s going to be valuable learning for the players, but we don’t really talk about that with the players.

“We talk about winning and how we put ourselves in a position to win and what we need to do to create those opportunities to win, but of course there will be learnings for us no matter what happens in the game.”

Townsend is relishing leading his team for an away match in the Rainbow Nation.

“Having been here before and seen and watched a lot of games now in South Africa, it is a unique occasion,” he said.

“There’s the smells when you come to the ground of the braais. The winter here, with the sun all day, the players have experienced it this week, it feels different.

“And then there’s a lot of music, a lot of noise getting played throughout the game. It’s now become a truly South African occasion, different from any others.

“But we’re used to different environments now, whether it’s the cauldron of Cardiff, whether it’s the music and the noise you get in Paris and Rome.

“It’ll be hostile in a way, but more noisy. I think the hostility is on the field. But it is one of those superb, unique occasions that the players will certainly be motivated for.”