Scots hatching plan for Boks

Scotland have been hatching a cunning gameplan for months  specifically designed to topple the Springboks and the proof will be in the pudding when the sides collide in Marseille on Sunday, coach Gregor Townsend says.

The table has been set for an intriguing World Cup Group B showdown between outsiders Scotland and champions SA in front of a sell-out 68,000 crowd at the Stade Velodrome (kickoff 5.45pm SA time).

“My hopes are obviously very high and my expectations of this team are very high because I know they can reach them,” Townsend said.

“We are focused on getting our best performance out against SA. We’ve been talking about that for months.

“It’s one reason we went strong in three of our four warm-up games. A lot of the players that will be involved at the weekend have played and trained together and built up a cohesion.

“A lot of what we’re doing in terms of our gameplan was set for SA, so it’s a great opportunity to see how they go.

“We know there’s some real tests ahead of us in the next few weeks but this team is ready to go.

“Scotland will be outsiders but that gives us nothing to lose mentality. We just need to focus on delivering our game and go after the opposition.”

The Scots landed in Nice on Sunday before heading to their training base in the hills near Valbonne, north of Cannes.

“It’s good that we got on the plane to France with no injuries which is amazing when you think back a few weeks ago when we had a squad of 41 and were reducing it to 33,” Townsend said.

“We thought the four games [against Italy, France home and away and Georgia], all tough Test matches, would result in injuries to our group, which hasn’t been the case.

“I’m really pleased those players that played in those games have been able to make it to this stage. As we currently view things, they will all be good for Sunday.

“We don’t train until Tuesday but we believe Darcy [Graham] will be training fully on Tuesday and available for selection.

“Blair Kinghorn’s recovered and we also expect him to train fully on Tuesday. We’ll have the full squad to pick from.

“The 23 is not decided. We’ve got individual decisions to make and then more a concept of whether it’s a 5/3 or a 6/2 bench we go for.”

Scottish lock Grant Gilchrist said his team had to look beyond the group stages in what promises to be the most closely contested World Cup in history.

“If you want to do well at a Rugby World Cup you’re going to have to play the best teams in the world.

“We have two of the best in the world in our group and we have to see that as a positive that we get to go out and really test ourselves against the best teams and prove we can beat them.

“We believe that if we get the best version of ourselves on the pitch at any given time we can beat these big teams.”