Cape Town – Gregor Townsend was reluctant to say that he had unfinished business with the Springboks following the British and Irish Lions tour, but he made it clear that his Scotland team was facing “probably our biggest challenge” at Murrayfield on Saturday.
Townsend was the attack coach during the Lions’ 2-1 series loss to South Africa earlier this year, where head coach Warren Gatland’s conservative tactics have been criticised in recent months by the likes of Scotland flyhalf Finn Russell and Wales wing Louis Rees-Zammit, who felt that a more attack-minded approach could’ve secured victory against the Boks.
Now Russell will look to wave his magic wand all around Siya Kolisi’s team on Saturday (3pm SA time kickoff), although Townsend didn’t want to go down the “revenge” road to motivate his players.
Asked if he had some unfinished business from the Lions tour, Townsend said from Edinburgh yesterday: “Yeah, you could say that. But obviously the business was finished in the summer, and we didn’t finish off opportunities that we had created in that third Test to win a series.
“So, they were deserving winners… they did enough to win the two Tests, and this is a different team. We’ve been on a different journey over the last couple of years, and we know that this is probably our biggest challenge over the last few years that we’ve faced – when you take on one of the top sides in the world, world champions…
“They’ve been number one in the world and have just lost number one now. But we know that they’ve beaten the Lions twice, they’ve beaten the All Blacks. This is a great game for this group, and it’s a one-off game. There is no (looking back) to the summer (Lions tour).
“I suppose that is driven by what we believe works for this group. Our group is different than other teams, and I always feel you have to play to your strengths. We have a number of plays who thrive when the game’s faster, when they can make decisions on attack.
“And our players know how matured, especially the key decision-makers, have come into their late 20s and have had a lot of experiences… they can do what’s right for the team at any given moment.
“They know that they’ve got the freedom to make those choices – for whatever is right, going into our game, and what’s working during a game.”
Townsend made a big call yesterday in announcing his team by choosing openside flank Hamish Watson on the bench, with Australian-born Nick Haining coming in at No 6, with Jamie Ritchie moving to No 7.
“There were sort of two reasons behind that decision – one is around Nick (Haining), who we believe will perform well in this game,” the former Scotland No 10 said.
“He played against a very physical team out in Paris (against France) in the Six Nations and performed well, and I thought he came off the bench and did really well against Tonga, and he was unlucky to miss out last week against a country where he was born.
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“So, we think the style of his play can really test our opposition this week. On the other side, it’s a case of what we feel is best for Hamish too. Hamish hadn’t had any rugby before the Tonga game, and we got him through 40 minutes in that game, and he did well at the weekend (against Australia).
“But we kind of have our view on just where he is after so little rugby. We also believe that Hamish can make a big impact at some point in the second half, or earlier if he has to.
“But this game is likely to be decided by how well teams play in the last 20 minutes, as much as it is in the first 20 minutes.”
Scotland Team
15 Stuart Hogg (captain) 14 Rufus McLean 13 Chris Harris 12 Matt Scott 11 Duhan van der Merwe 10 Finn Russell 9 Ali Price 8 Matt Fagerson 7 Jamie Ritchie 6 Nick Haining 5 Grant Gilchrist 4 Sam Skinner 3 Zander Fagerson 2 Stuart McInally 1 Pierre Schoeman.
Bench: 16 Ewan Ashman 17 Jamie Bhatti 18 Oli Kebble 19 Jamie Hodgson 20 Hamish Watson 21 George Horne 22 Adam Hastings 23 Blair Kinghorn.
IOL Sport