The Springboks are under pressure early at the tournament after their shock 34-32 loss to Japan in their Pool B opener on Saturday. White coached the 2007 World Cup winning sqaud.
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And it has now turned the spotlight on the Scots.
Jones will have no problem motivating his side, which shows six changes to the XV that started against South Africa. This has also been the case in other game, albeit to a lesser extent. If the players aren’t excited after Saturday that would be a problem, they are excited.
Captain Greig Laidlaw said: “I did feel they were tiring”. We’re just looking forward to the opportunity. We’re pretty excited.
Scotland’s South African-born prop WP Nel, meanwhile, insists he is not out to avenge the Springboks defeat on behalf of his compatriots. Last rencounter was 2013 Japan tour and ten long years before in 2004 at Japan Tour of Scotland when Scottish won by convincing 100 to 8 points. Japan’s lone victory was a 28-24 decision in May 1989. I said if it’s a quick game Japan has the ability to win. It’s not about what happened at the weekend.
He was already a hero after scoring 24-points in Japan’s famous win over South Africa, and now Ayumu Goromaru has amazed the world once more with an incredible try-saving tackle against Scotland.
But Scotland assistant coach Duncan Taylor refuted those claims, saying: “That’s something that he believes in”.
“All my family is back home and I’m not sure what I’m going to do”. We talked at length about playing for 80 minutes and we have done that today. “We haven’t just come here to make one splash in the pond, we are here to play a World Cup and we want to make the quarter-finals. We’ll take each game as it comes and this week our focus is on Samoa“, said Louw. We will have to be at the top of our game defensively. “And to suggest that we were going save ourselves for Scotland is unusual thinking”. “We must be prepared not only for ruck time, but collisions in defense and attack”. Pre-season has been really good for us.
South Africa now take on Samoa on Saturday and Japan face Scotland on Wednesday.
Scotland will have to be at their bravest to counter the fearless Blossoms in the passionate and festive atmosphere of the Kingsholm Stadium in Gloucester, where their match kicks off at 1330 GMT.
“I think everyone was impressed by their commitment”.
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“We just weren’t good enough”, he said. “I think Japan found it hard to do that four-day turnaround and we are in the same situation now”, the Scotland coach said.
