Gregor Townsend on Scotland v South Africa

Scotland coach Gregor Townsend previews match v South Africa

Transcript

00:00To be able to go to a game where you know you're taking the world champions, it's going

00:04to be a sell-out, you know that you're going to have to play your best rugby to be in the

00:10game. So yes, it's got everybody's minds focused and the players are really relishing this

00:15opportunity.

00:16You also met them in the World Cup a year ago. A year's a long time in Test Rugby, a

00:20lot of rugby's been played since then, but what did you learn from that day, what do

00:24you need to do on the weekend that you didn't quite manage to do in Marseille?

00:29Yes, look, different context. I think the first game of the World Cup, there's probably

00:33more emotion that goes through players' minds about how important that game was, not only

00:41as a one-off game, but our chances in the World Cup. The fact that we have played them,

00:46the players have felt what it's like to go up against the Springboks, from whatever area

00:51the game is relevant to them. It could be how they defend, line-out, the contact area.

00:57So they know now what, they've got recent experience of how it is to go up against the

01:02Springboks team. And also there's a lot of changes since then, changes in maybe how we

01:07play, but certainly how they've played since the World Cup. They're very innovative around

01:13what they want to do off set-piece, and they move the ball wide. They'll play at pace,

01:18they'll play much more of an open game, which wasn't so much the case in the World Cup.