Jonathan Humphreys doesn’t understand why anyone would suggest Scotland’s team for the crucial Pool B clash with South Africa in Newcastle this afternoon is a “second-string” selection.
The forwards coach continued the Scottish camp offensive in defence of the 11 changes made for this game, denying they were keeping their powder dry for the final pool game against Samoa next week and again pointing out the difficulties of the schedule.
“International rugby is a hugely, hugely physical sport. I’d prefer people to say that we have a 31 man squad playing three physical games in three days,” he said.
“We have the two Gray brothers, we have a fantastic back row, Blair Cowan played every single game in the Six Nations.
“Gordon Reid played extremely well against France, and Fraser Brown has arguably been our best forward in this tournament so far. He has been outstanding.”
Everyone had worked “unbelievably hard” to be in this position and everyone had faith in the entire squad, added the Welshman.
“We are comfortable with what we are putting out, we are confident in the group we have picked.
“They are an extremely proud group of people. I haven’t seen a more together group and they are all buying into the same thing. So no, I can’t understand why people say it’s a second-string.”
The suggestion that Scotland had more of an eye on Samoa than South Africa was plainly wrong, he said.
“Next week will be next week,” he said. “Our sole focus is on this game, and we cannot take our focus off this game.
“We have not thought about Samoa, South Africa are an unbelievable threat to us and we want to get this job done.”
Much of what Scotland will do today has been prescribed in the months of work during the summer, specifically as they knew they did not have much time to “re-coach” in this spell of three games in 10 days, said Humphreys.
“There’s not a lot you can do in a four or six-day turnaround to change a lot of stuff you’ve been doing,” he pointed out. “You have to go back to your basic principles you spent three months preparing and if you adhere to those and stick to those then hopefully you will be in the game.”
One area where they will expect to be targeted is the maul, South Africa’s speciality and a recurring problem for Scotland this year, if one recalls the France, Italy and Ireland games in the 6 Nations and Japan’s try in the first game at Gloucester.
“They want to go back to type, to try and out-muscle us,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any magic formula for stopping a maul. It’s about getting in early, trying to disrupt what they’re trying to do, and doing it legally.”
Humphreys is not one for tricks like not engaging with the maul.
“We take a lot of pride in being very physical in those areas, so that’s what we’re hoping to do,” he said. “To stand off teams you rely on referees’ interpretation – we’d rather have our destiny in our own hands and do what we have to do in the right way.”
He also thinks that the Springboks are being slightly disingenuous when talking about having to change their lineout scheme to counter Josh Strauss and WP Nel.
“I don’t think it’s possible to change a complete book of lineouts in a week,” he said. “Their lineout is very effective and simple.
“Whether they change, I don’t know, but it certainly won’t be anything monumental. It’s not something we’ve even talked about. It’s about doing what we need to do, and if they’ve had any disruption, then great.”
Whether the Scots think they’re fielding a second string or not, the bookies have spoken; South Africa are 11-2 on, Scotland an appealing 6-1 against for this game.
There’s a sizeable South African contingent already in Newcastle with the majority of the Scottish invasion over the border due to come today for a 52,000 sellout at St James’, which has taken on a radically different look for the game.
All trace of Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct empire has been covered up. It’s like a Toon Army dream.
Of course, there’s not been much else for the Newcastle faithful to cheer about at St James’ of late. Perhaps the invading army are due a bit better good fortune.