Rassie heaps praise on 'quality' Scotland coach

Cape Town - Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus has heaped praise on his Scottish counterpart Gregor Townsend ahead of the Test in Edinburgh on Saturday.

Erasmus has some history with Townsend from his time coaching Irish side Munster in the PRO14.

Erasmus managed to get the better of Townsend’s Glasgow Warriors four times in one season, although the Bok mentor joked that the total points difference was about three when he addressed reporters in Edinburgh on Thursday.

“It’s tough coaching against him and he is real quality. With the amount of players Scotland have, to be doing what they’re doing, it’s well done,” Erasmus said on Thursday, as quoted by The Scotsman.

“We know we’re going to face some well-coached, fit, energetic players. They’re maybe not the biggest team in the world but what they lack in size they make up for with intensity, speed and a great system.”

The Springboks have a 21-5 head-to-head win record over Scotland but the Scots have been superb at home in recent times.

In the last 11 Tests played at Murrayfield, Scotland have won 10 with their only loss coming against the All Blacks in November last year when they went down 22-17.

There have been some big scalps too, with Scotland knocking over England, France, Australia, Wales, Ireland and Argentina at home in the last two years.

The last time Scotland hosted the Boks at Murrayfield was back in 2013 when Heyneke Meyer's men secured a comfortable 28-0 win.  

Kick-off is at 19:20 (SA time) on Saturday.

Teams:

Scotland

15 Stuart Hogg, 14 Tommy Seymour, 13 Huw Jones, 12 Pete Horne, 11 Sean Maitland, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Greig Laidlaw (captain), 8 Ryan Wilson, 7 Hamish Watson, 6 Sam Skinner 5 Jonny Gray, 4 Ben Toolis, 3 WP Nel, 2 Stuart McInally, 1 Gordon Reid

Substitutes: 16 Fraser Brown, 17 Allan Dell, 18 Simon Berghan, 19 Josh Strauss, 20 Jamie Ritchie, 21 Ali Price, 22 Adam Hastings, 23 Chris Harris.

South Africa

15 Willie le Roux, 14 S’bu Nkosi, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Aphiwe Dyantyi, 10 Handre Pollard, 9 Embrose Papier, 8 Duane Vermeulen, 7 Pieter-Steph du Toit, 6 Siya Kolisi (captain), 5 Franco Mostert, 4 RG Snyman, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Steven Kitshoff

Substitutes: 16 Bongi Mbonambi, 17 Thomas du Toit, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 Lood de Jager, 20 Francois Louw, 21 Ivan van Zyl, 22 Elton Jantjies, 23 Cheslin Kolbe