Scotland now have Ross Ford and Johnny Gray available for their World Cup quarter final against Australia.
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And if the Wallabies win and Ireland defeat Argentina, both highly likely scenarios the Wallabies will then meet the Irish in the semi-final.
There was further bad news on Friday morning with confirmation that inside centre Matt Scott had failed a fitness test after straining his back, with the Edinburgh man replaced by Glasgow’s Peter Horne.
Scotland’s best hope is that the effort their opponents put in against Wales took too much out of them, that they miss two of their most influential players and they get complacent.
“So it’s tough trying to pick weaknesses when there aren’t many”.
“We are going out there to just do what we have done in the last few weeks, no different, and just prepare in the same way and look for that consistency”, Kepu told reporters. Instead, they’ll just get on with it.
“Unfortunately we’ve had to park that situation”. They thrashed the Poms, grinded out a close victory over the Welsh, and go into the knockout stage full of confidence after four wins on the trot. We don’t need to worry about extra motivation.
Australia, two-time World Cup winners, are the favourites for the clash at Twickenham, but Cheika added: “It’s pretty easy because we don’t think we are complacent”.
With no precedent for a complete reversal of a suspension Cotter has gone ahead and planned for Ford and Gray’s absence.
The decision to ban the duo angered the Scotland camp, with chief executive Mark Dodson labelling the punishment “unduly harsh”.
But Cotter is keen to re-focus on the Aussies.
“The timing of things always works in unusual ways to get to a right outcome”. “The are very good at the moment and they’ve had periods of that before, but they don’t seem to have what New Zealand have over us, or even England”.
“We understand there will be 23 players in the Scotland jersey trying to smash us”.
The third member, another Kiwi, Blair Cowan, has seized his chance after being called up as an injury replacement.
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Australia go into Sunday’s quarter-final without the services of full-back Israel Folau and number eight David Pocock with calf and ankle problems respectively. “The attack didn’t really get going against the Springboks who were so physical or against the Samoans when we almost got caught up in the way the game unfolded with one try following another so quickly”.
