Adversity in the shape of two disciplinary bans to key players Ross Ford and Jonny Gray, on top of the fact the Scots were already rank outsiders to beat Australia in Sunday’s World Cup quarter-final at Twickenham, sits well with the Scottish psyche, thinks the young centre.
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What was under question was who would start at hooker for Scotland after 94-test veteran Ross Ford won an appeal on Saturday against a three-match ban, making him immediately eligible for the quarterfinal.
Hooker Ford and lock Gray were handed three-match suspensions earlier this week after being found guilty of dropping Samoa’s Jack Lam on his head during last week’s final Pool B match in Newcastle.
“Stephen and Matt are very highly respected members of our team before they ever reached 100 Tests mark but this landmark makes all of us in the team very proud”, he said.
Scotland now the last man standing of northern hemisphere sides left in the World Cup after Argentina sent Ireland home.
“Obviously, we have to do a few analysis of the opposition but we’ve kept it at the basic minimum and focus on what we’re doing and try to improve”.
Now Pocock is lost to a leg injury and it is the Scots who field two specialist sevens… and not just any opensides.
Facing their biggest challenge at the Rugby World Cup, the Wallabies will have to overcome the loss of Israel Folau and David Pocock against a Scotland outfit buoyed by the surprise availability of two of their stars.
“We’re all very disappointed for them”.
Scotland coach Vern Cotter has gone for a pair of New Zealand-born flankers in a bid to destabilize an Australia backrow that has been shuffled for the second time in as many games.
“You have to forget about games in the past, it is about what happens on the day between the two teams for 80 minutes”, he said.
“They have got world-class players all over the place but it’s the same for us”.
“We’ll take confidence out of performances we’ve had, and that will set us up for what will be the biggest game for us of the whole year”.
“They are a team that is more unsafe at the end, so we can’t even allow a slight slip in concentration”, said Cotter.
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“We’re playing a team that likes front-foot ball and are impressive going forward”. Australia pretty much invented the tactic of fielding twin sevens when Phil Waugh and George Smith nearly stole the William Webb Ellis trophy from under England’s nose in 2003.
