Boks in UK
Townsend: Pressure on Meyer
2012-11-15 20:00
Cape Town - Scotland's attacking coach Gregor Townsend believes the Springboks are there for the taking with their coaching staff under pressure to play a more attractive brand of rugby.
The former Scotland flyhalf feels this pressure on
Heyneke Meyer and his assistants could give Scotland a shot at their third victory over the Springboks in 10 years.
“While South Africa are the world's No 2 team, their coaching staff are under a bit of pressure to produce more attractive rugby," Townsend wrote in his column on the
Evening Times website.
“I think coming to Edinburgh this weekend they are doing so knowing more will be expected of them from back home.
“On top of that, we beat the Boks two years ago when they came to Murrayfield and we have done that twice in the last 10 years.
“So, when all of that is taken into account, then I think we have a real chance to get something.”
Scotland beat the Springboks 21-6 back in 2002 and also stunned them 21-17 two years ago.
Despite their 51-22 loss to the All Blacks, Townsend believes they did a lot of things right last week which will stand them in good stead against the South Africans.
“For a start, we scored three tries and were very competitive in the forwards and, in the second half, we showed some real character to keep competing.
“The other aspect was that all the areas we were good in are the boxes that will need to be ticked against the Boks.”
Kick-off on Saturday is at 16:30 (SA time).
Teams:Scotland:15 Stuart Hogg, 14 Sean Lamont, 13 Nick de Luca, 12 Matt Scott, 11 Tim Visser, 10 Greig Laidlaw, 9 Mike Blair, 8 David Denton, 7 Kelly Brown (captain), 6 Alasdair Strokosch, 5 Jim Hamilton, 4 Richie Gray, 3 Euan Murray, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Ryan Grant
Substitutes: 16 Dougie Hall, 17 Kyle Traynor, 18 Geoff Cross, 19 Alastair Kellock, 20 John Barclay, 21 Henry Pyrgos, 22 Ruaridh Jackson, 23 Peter Murchie
South Africa:15 Zane Kirchner, 14
JP Pietersen, 13 Juan de Jongh, 12 Jean de Villiers (captain), 11
Francois Hougaard, 10 Pat Lambie, 9
Ruan Pienaar, 8
Duane Vermeulen, 7
Willem Alberts, 6
Francois Louw, 5 Juandré Kruger, 4
Eben Etzebeth, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2
Adriaan Strauss, 1 Gurthrö Steenkamp
Substitutes: 16. Schalk Brits, 17 Heinke van der Merwe, 18 CJ van der Linde, 19 Flip van der Merwe, 20
Marcell Coetzee, 21 Morné Steyn, 22 Jaco Taute, 23
Lwazi Mvovo