There is nothing like the smell of Schadenfreude in the morning. As Scottish and South African fans mingled at Newcastle station to go their separate ways on Sunday after a game at St James’ Park the previous afternoon every bit as combative as those between local football writers and Mike Ashley, they were joined at the hip flask by a common sentiment: revelling in England’s desolation.
“Ah, I enjoyed that immensely,” said a Scot, oblivious to his own team’s defeat but happily aware that, if their opponents, Samoa, behave next Saturday as they did when crumbling in front of Japan on Saturday, they are in the quarter-finals.
South Africa took over at the top of Group B after winning 34-16 and have a much quicker turnaround against similar quality opponents in USA at Olympic Park on Wednesday. Oddly they are going through the group stage without having played at a dedicated rugby ground.
Scotland are worth their advance after two excellent second halves against the shock Bok-crunchers, Japan, then the Americans, before finding South Africa too strong all round in front of more than 50,000 fans on a pleasant Saturday afternoon. Certainly there was more joy and passion in the air than there has been for Steve McClaren’s hapless footballers lately.
As it stands, and if there are no more seismic surprises in store, South Africa will play Wales in the quarter-finals at Twickenham on 17 October and Scotland will play Australia there the following day. Would either of them prefer to be playing England? On the evidence of the hosts’ defeat by Australia on Saturday night, probably. But that is irrelevant now.
Again Scotland – who scored five tries in each of the second halves in their first two matches – finished better than they started and their New Zealand-born coach, Vern Cotter, could not offer a cogent explanation in the immediate aftermath. However, he surely will not allow his players to indulge themselves at the same venue on Saturday.
Duncan Weir, whose flashy, second-half step-and-dash nearly the length of the field ripped a rare hole in the Springboks defence to set up Tommy Seymour’s try – his second in two matches – acknowledged: “We need to start going out and imposing our game as quickly as we can and not waiting to see what the opposition is going to throw at us. We will review the game and make sure we come out of the traps next week.”
Whether he is in the starting traps could depend on the fitness of the first-choice fly-half, Finn Russell, who was sidelined on Saturday but will be closely monitored this week, along with the hooker Ross Ford and centre Matt Scott who took hits to the head in a typically physical match. “I can only grasp the opportunities the coaches put in front of me,” Weir said.
Stuart Hogg, Jonny Gray and Richie Vernon are expected to recover quickly from minor knocks.
South Africa are in good shape all round. Bryan Habana scored his 61st Test try, leaving the wing eight behind Daisuke Ohata and within three of David Campese on the all-time list. Handre Pollard scored 19 points, including his third drop goal of the tournament, to overtake the 16 Jannie de Beer posted against Scotland in 1999. So their attacking options are wide-ranging and well grooved.
They came to Saturday’s match having lost five of their previous seven. They left looking very dangerous opponents again. Outstanding for them was Lodewyk De Jager (possibly known to friends as Bomb), a lock playing in his 15th international.
He topped his team’s ball carries with 13 and tackle count with 14. At 19st 7lb, 6ft 7in and in such rampant form, he was tough to miss.
