Cotter expecting ‘competitive’ Scotland

South Africa have scored three tries off driven lineouts at this World Cup, so Scotland have been warned.

He played a key role in the wins over Japan – scoring a try on his 23rd birthday – and United States which saw them collect maximum points. “I know it’s going to be a long World Cup for us”.

Wallabies coach Michael Cheika has done his utmost to secure the “underdog” tag and while that may well be the case, there is genuinely very little between these two teams. Called up to replace Gilchrist, he has been rushed into the Scotland team and now finds himself up against Springboks’ world-class back row.

Not that the Americans will be taken lightly but there are plenty of hungry players in the 31-man squad that can come in for the patched up players that are gearing up for one final heave against the Scots.

“But, by the time I had left Dublin and arrived in Johannesberg, the Irish Press Group had gone bust!” he explains. “It’s definitely a thing we need to work on”, he said.

“Next week will be next week”.

He said: “Four years ago we struggled through our first game but in a lot of ways I thought we were stronger for coming through that one with Romania and the next against Georgia”.

They are between two worlds right now; they’d like to beat South Africa, but they simply have to beat Samoa.

Piling the heat on South Africa and hoping they wilt in the endgame is Scotland’s plan, but to get to that point you suspect they’re going to need to deliver close to the game of their lives.

Blair Cowan, Richie Vernon and Gordon Reid will make their first appearances of the competition in the Pool B match at St James’ Park, Newcastle, and could be joined by Sam Hidalgo-Clyne, who is among the substitutes.

“We’ve looked at workloads and potential injuries and there are players we feel that are better regenerating”, Cotter said. “He’s a quick learner, so he takes on information easily”.

“He’s not an additional burden on me at all“.

“He and I have slightly different games and I won’t be trying to outdo what he does, because that’s his thing and he’s very good at it. But I’ll be trying to lift the level of what I do”. I’ve loved my time in Scotland and everyone has been great. They are athletic and tall guys so it is definitely a challenge for me, but we have our plans in place.

Scott, in particular, has bounced back from injury to show the hard carrying that edges him ahead of Pete Horne in Vern Cotter’s power game. “We just can’t let South Africa get an early lead as it will be incredibly tough for us to claw them back”.

Strauss said that his training camp in 2012 – the South Africans yesterday cheekily tweeted a picture of him from it sat next to South African head coach Heyneke Meyer – was all about planning.

But even with Russell fit and ready, Vernon knows the Scots are shaping up for their biggest test yet. It’s not something we have talked about.

“Are they at it?”

Asked if he felt a responsibility to match Russell’s levels of performance, Weir said: “I don’t really think about that”.