Boks turn focus to South African-boosted Scotland

With the opening Test of the Outgoing Tour against Wales out of the way, the Springboks are expecting an even tougher encounter with a Scotland team sporting a few familiar faces in Edinburgh on Saturday.

Coming off a gritty 15-13 victory over the Wallabies, a morale-boosted Scotland will be targeting a second southern-hemisphere scalp when they host the world champions at Murrayfield.

In particular, it is the large South African contingent in the Scottish camp that is giving Bok coach Jacques Nienaber cause for concern ahead of the clash.

Loosehead prop Pierre Schoeman and British & Irish Lions wing Duhan van der Merwe both started their careers in South Africa, while Kyle Steyn – the four-try hero in the win over Tonga – and Sharks flank Dylan Richardson are also part of the squad.

Another familiar face is former Bok assistant coach Peter de Villiers, currently Scotland’s scrum coach who was initially part of Rassie Erasmus’ staff in 2018.

“I think the tour is going to get tougher. People are looking at Scotland and they think it’s going to be an easy game,” Nienaber said.

“I analysed their Tonga game and they have a couple of South Africans in their team who would understand how we do things.

“Duhan and Pierre are guys I have coached so I know their quality, so we really need to get our stuff sorted out.

“Pieter de Villiers was with us for quite some time and he’ll have some information, so we need to be sharp.”

The Springboks played in front of a capacity crowd at Cardiff, but Nienaber added that he is expecting Murrayfield to bring the noise in Saturday’s Test.

“It always helps when you get a bit of momentum and that is something we were looking for,” Nienaber said.

“There were so many Springbok supporters with green jerseys and you could hear our anthem being sung in the stands.”

Photo: Stu Forster/Getty Images

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