Scotland changes for South Africa

So now Jonathan Humphreys knows what being a Scotland forwards coach is really all about.

The Scots have been in South Africa for little more than a week, have suffered a 27-17 loss to Samoa, and have already lost two props and a hooker. And just for good measure, another prop is now being medically assessed.

Humphreys, in short, is finding out how bare the Scottish cupboard can be. When the top guys are all fit and well, Scotland can match most Test sides in the scrum, but there are not many places to turn when the injuries start stacking up. When the pundits started discussing candidates for call-ups, many of the names being bandied about belonged to players who are alarmingly inexperienced at club level, let alone anything higher.

"It is an interesting situation," was Humphreys' wry assessment of the scenario. "We came out here with the intention of broadening our base [of players] and we will now have to broaden it sooner than we thought. We have a fair few injuries after the weekend."

Humphreys was appointed the forwards coach after the RBS 6 Nations Championship, succeeding the Worcester-bound Dean Ryan. The former Wales hooker and captain had previously had the same role under Scott Johnson at the Ospreys, so he clearly has the confidence of the interim head coach. However, watching his players being bullied into submission by the Samoans could hardly have been the most comfortable first day at the office.

Did it hurt his pride? "I was not embarrassed," was his defiant response. "My remit was to come and look and understand. I need to understand the players, and that was a one-off snapshot.

"Obviously we were disappointed with how the game went, but sometimes the measure of a person is in how they bounce back. I will be really interested to see what the character of this squad now is."

In many ways, Humphreys' experience against Samoa was similar to what Ryan endured on the opening weekend of the Six Nations at Twickenham as he watched the Scottish forwards take a battering from their English opponents at the breakdown. Ryan had some harsh words in the dressing room after that performance, but Humphreys made it clear his Mr Angry act is being kept in reserve, for the moment.

"The contact area is a fair amount about mindset, having a system in place that everyone understands," he suggested. "This is a new group of players. Were we good in the contact area? No, we weren't. Do we have to become extremely good? Yes.

"That is where we need to find the players who will do what we want. There is no point in giving rockets every two or three games. What does that do? It is just skimming the surface. We need to find the people who will do what we want them to do."

"The days of people sitting down and giving speeches about how people sacrifice lives on battlefields, and all that, only gives you so much. It is about people who within them have the character you want. There are people there; there are people on this tour who have those characteristics."

Maybe so, but there are also people on the tour whose preparation for a ferociously physical Test was clearly lacking. The previous weekend, many of the Samoan players had been taking part in fiercely contested Super Rugby matches, while a good number of the Scots had not played a game of any sort for more than five weeks.

Were the Scots undercooked? "Definitely, that was the case," said Humphreys candidly. "There were certainly a few people who felt off it. In the second half we were considerably better than we were in the first 15 to 20 minutes. But there are no excuses. Were we good enough on the day? No. Are we good enough to have won? Yes, we are. But in the first few minutes we were very sloppy and let them in for two easy tries. In Test match rugby you cannot do that."

The Scots might have hoped for a gentler second game in his tournament than the one they are likely to be given by the Springboks. Selection has now been delayed until Thursday by the squad's injury situation, and options are narrowing. Despite that, Humphreys wants to see as many players in action as possible on the tour.

"We came out here with something in mind – to make sure the players play. We are not giving caps away, nothing like that, but we have to make sure we find out what people are about. We are not bringing people on tour to still have questions about them when we go back. They are coming into a high-intensity game on the back of a disappointing performance. We need to find out what they are about and selection will reflect that."

funnyExiledScot wrote:The only hope is that Morne Steyn plays conservatively and spanks the leather off the ball with his boot on each occasion he gets the ball. That way the Boks will score in multiples of 3 rather than 7.

There is absolutely no chance we'll be within 20 points on this one. I hate to be a pessimist, but that Bok squad is by some distance superior to ours. We sorely need Grant, Ford, Gray, Brown, Rennie, Maitland and Hogg for this sort of contest. This will be a severe demonstration that our "depth" isn't what it needs to be.

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:I should have stuck in at this rugby Malarky and got my injury sorted. I might have had a call up...

RDW_Scotland wrote:It was actually quite liberating being to spend all day in my pants watching rugby on TV - I recommend it!

I caved though and went into town instead of watching SA - Italy, the lure of our only sun for the year was too much!

funnyExiledScot wrote:Don't worry about the experience of Du Plessis versus Fraser Brown. You don't need anything silly like experience to be a top class international hooker. Potential will do just fine.....

funnyExiledScot wrote:Haven't Glasgow also started pre-season as well, or is that just punishment for Edinburgh as a result of being bad at rugby last season?

I'd imagine Gordon Reid after three weeks on the beach would be red with sunburn and just a little bit fat!

funnyExiledScot wrote:I have an exclusive deal with 606v2.

A SOUTH African journalist has labelled Scotland “donkeys” and predicted a heavy defeat for Scott Johnson’s side in Nelspruit this weekend.

Scotland suffered a 27-17 defeat to Samoa in the opening weekend of the Castle Lager Test Series in Durban and have been dealt a series of injury blows in the lead-up to Saturday’s Test against the host Springboks. Glasgow prop Gordon Reid was the third player to be flown out from Scotland after the squad lost Ryan Grant to the Lions before the tournament started, and Kelly Brown, Pat MacArthur and Geoff Cross to injury in the wake of the Samoa loss.
Tighthead prop Euan Murray is struggling to recover from a hamstring injury and so Reid yesterday joined Jon Welsh and Fraser Brown in flying in to South Africa to plug holes.
But, even before the injury crisis, Mark Keohane – a former Springbok media officer – Crusaders wing. He [Maitland] is easily the best in Scotland, which again highlights the lack of international pedigree that will face the Boks.
“What will come to South Africa is a ‘best of the rest’ from Scotland and that alone tells you that the Boks could pick any match 22 and triumph.”
On Scotland’s form, he wrote: “Somehow Scotland won two of their Six Nations matches against Ireland and Italy. France, who hadn’t won a game in the tournament, beat Scotland in Paris and Wales and England comfortably brushed aside their challenge.
“The win against Ireland was unlikely and unexpected and allowed critics of the Scottish game to agree on a relatively successful campaign because Scotland managed to beat a team outside Italy. Come on!
“These guys are donkeys. South Africa should pump them and to try and write up the visitors is to insult anyone who has taken the time to read this article. There is nothing this team will bring to South Africa that can threaten the Boks.”
He called Italy “toothless tigers” who are “a danger to themselves with ball in hand” and added: “Samoa is the side I want to see the Springboks play in the final of the tournament, especially as they will be at full-strength.”
However, South Africa head coach Heyneke Meyer has dismissed those comments as bearing no relation to thoughts inside his squad.
“We have a lot of respect for Scotland,” he said. “If you look at our results in the last few years they have beaten us twice, and that was against quality sides. This is a young [South Africa] team and obviously we’re still learning and we want to do well, but Scotland are a very difficult team to play against.
“They play with a lot of passion and heart and irrespective of what happened against Samoa they always lift themselves against the Boks so we know this is going to be a very physical encounter, and we’re going to have to be at our best to beat them.”

RDW_Scotland wrote:Nice to see the SA press rate us...

A SOUTH African journalist has labelled Scotland “donkeys” and predicted a heavy defeat for Scott Johnson’s side in Nelspruit this weekend.

Scotland suffered a 27-17 defeat to Samoa in the opening weekend of the Castle Lager Test Series in Durban and have been dealt a series of injury blows in the lead-up to Saturday’s Test against the host Springboks. Glasgow prop Gordon Reid was the third player to be flown out from Scotland after the squad lost Ryan Grant to the Lions before the tournament started, and Kelly Brown, Pat MacArthur and Geoff Cross to injury in the wake of the Samoa loss.
Tighthead prop Euan Murray is struggling to recover from a hamstring injury and so Reid yesterday joined Jon Welsh and Fraser Brown in flying in to South Africa to plug holes.
But, even before the injury crisis, Mark Keohane – a former Springbok media officer – Crusaders wing. He [Maitland] is easily the best in Scotland, which again highlights the lack of international pedigree that will face the Boks.
“What will come to South Africa is a ‘best of the rest’ from Scotland and that alone tells you that the Boks could pick any match 22 and triumph.”
On Scotland’s form, he wrote: “Somehow Scotland won two of their Six Nations matches against Ireland and Italy. France, who hadn’t won a game in the tournament, beat Scotland in Paris and Wales and England comfortably brushed aside their challenge.
“The win against Ireland was unlikely and unexpected and allowed critics of the Scottish game to agree on a relatively successful campaign because Scotland managed to beat a team outside Italy. Come on!
“These guys are donkeys. South Africa should pump them and to try and write up the visitors is to insult anyone who has taken the time to read this article. There is nothing this team will bring to South Africa that can threaten the Boks.”
He called Italy “toothless tigers” who are “a danger to themselves with ball in hand” and added: “Samoa is the side I want to see the Springboks play in the final of the tournament, especially as they will be at full-strength.”
However, South Africa head coach Heyneke Meyer has dismissed those comments as bearing no relation to thoughts inside his squad.
“We have a lot of respect for Scotland,” he said. “If you look at our results in the last few years they have beaten us twice, and that was against quality sides. This is a young [South Africa] team and obviously we’re still learning and we want to do well, but Scotland are a very difficult team to play against.
“They play with a lot of passion and heart and irrespective of what happened against Samoa they always lift themselves against the Boks so we know this is going to be a very physical encounter, and we’re going to have to be at our best to beat them.”

All we can hope for is that the players have the same attitude and get caught cold!