Townsend: World Cup Loss to South Africa Irrelevant for Murrayfield Fixture

Gregor Townsend has stated that Scotland’s loss to South Africa in last year’s Rugby World Cup, where the Springboks successfully defended their title in France, will not influence Sunday’s Autumn Nations Series encounter between the two teams at Murrayfield. The Springboks secured an 18-3 win in the World Cup’s opening pool match held in Marseille, subsequently proceeding to retain the championship trophy. When questioned about the lessons his squad learned from that particular defeat at the Stade Velodrome, Townsend responded: “Different contexts,” adding, “I think the first game of the World Cup, there’s probably more emotion that goes through the players’ minds about how important that game was, not only as a one-off game, but our chances in the World Cup.” He continued: “The fact that we have played them, I think the players have felt what it’s like to go up against the Springboks, from whatever area of the game is relevant to them. It could be how they defend, line-out, the contact area.” Townsend further explained: “So they know now what, or they’ve got recent experience of how it is to go up against the Springboks team.” He also highlighted transformations: “And also there’s a lot of changes since then. Changes in maybe how we play, but certainly how they’ve played since the World Cup. They’re very innovative around what they want to do off set-piece. And they move the ball wide.” Concluding his remarks, Townsend stated: “They’ll play at pace, they’ll play much more of an open game, which wasn’t so much the case in the World Cup.””