Scotland’s team selection against South Africa has met a mixed reaction. Some perceive it as less than full strength, a concession that this game does not need to be won nor that it can be. Then again maybe a mixed reaction is exactly what Vern Cotter is after – not least from the Springboks.
Closer examination reveals a trend in nearly all the changes – each represents a significant physical upgrade. Insofar as one can trust official statistics Fraser Brown is a couple of stones lighter than Ross Ford. Otherwise Scotland have gone for big, increasing their aggregate weight by five and a half stones across the 10 changes to the side that beat USA (and that includes the minus-two stone Brown yields to Ford). If Japan have shown there are other ways of taking on the Springboks, Scotland seem to be adhering to the more traditional theory that one needs to meet them head on.
The biggest gain is in the centres, Matt Scott and Richie Vernon weighing 20lb and 29lb more than the men they are replacing. Vernon’s case is particularly interesting – the more so when it is in vogue to ask what it takes for a big man to play in midfield with scant experience of it. But this new centre is unlikely to be left flat-footed.
Vernon is a 6ft 5in, 16-stone, former back-row forward, who switched to the midfield two years ago when he was struggling to break into the Glasgow team or build on the 20 caps he had won for Scotland as a rangy No8. Back then, on the advice of Gregor Townsend, his coach at Glasgow, Vernon agreed that Scotland and the Warriors had the usual glut of back-row options but were a little light in midfield. Since then, as luck or otherwise would have it, the midfield has become Scotland’s area of greatest depth.
Vernon is contributing handsomely to that. There was a time, as Scott and Alex Dunbar established themselves and other centres came through only a few months after he had made the switch, when Vernon wondered if he had made a terrible mistake. It is testament to his success in the outside-centre channel that he finds himself at the World Cup as a Pro12 winner in the very position that has so suddenly become Scotland’s richest. John Beattie, the former Scotland No8 who coached a young Vernon at West of Scotland, is not surprised.
“The boy’s devastating,” Beattie said. “He’s a sevens player. Everyone thinks he’s a converted No8 but actually he’s a flying machine. He was as fast as any of the backs. He’s very tall – could be an international six or seven, possibly even a five – but he’s also quick enough and powerful enough to play in midfield.”
If Scotland’s stocks in midfield are as abundant as they appear, Saturday is as good a time as any to show it. A year and a half ago Scott Johnson was effusive in his praise for the potential of Scott and Dunbar, predicting they would be the best centre pairing in the north in a couple of years.
This World Cup has come a little too soon for Dunbar, after the knee injury he suffered during the Six Nations, but since Johnson’s bold prediction Mark Bennett, the 22-year-old wunderkind, has come through the ranks to increase Scotland’s options. Against South Africa Bennett steps aside for Vernon, who is 28, affording the latter a priceless chance to put himself forward as yet another genuine option – and a point of difference with his physical credentials. Bennett is not even in the 23.
“I think Vernon can do this easily,” Beattie said. “For people who have never played sevens it would be difficult but he’s always played sevens, always was loose. I don’t think there are so many aspects of rugby now that are purely specialist, apart from scrums and lineouts. From then on you’re pretty much in rugby league, where everyone plays ball in hand. If someone’s going to skin you for pace you’re in trouble in the centre but Vernon’s freakishly quick. He’s a freak. For a big man he’s unbelievably quick.”
At St James’ Park he will partner Scott, the more cerebral of Scotland’s stock of centres, but only a couple of pounds lighter than Vernon despite giving away four inches in height– so hardly a delicate flower. They will be up against a midfield shorn of its captain but bristling itself with the talent of two stars of the future – if not the present – in Damian de Allende and Jesse Kriel. It is one of several contests within the contest to savour. And, for once, few of those will see Scotland looking lightweight.
