Gregor Townsend Scotland debrief: What worked, what must improve, what to expect from South Africa

They last faced the Springboks on the opening weekend of the 2023 Rugby World Cup in Marseille and struggled to lay a glove on the defending champions in an 18-3 defeat.

A lot of water has flowed under a lot of bridges since then and South Africa have evolved since they successfully defended the trophy by beating New Zealand in the final in Paris. They are more adventurous, more attack-minded and Townsend expects an open contest at Murrayfield next weekend

Asked after the Fiji match about which parts of their game Scotland would need to improve on, the coach said: “Every area, for sure. How we attack, how we execute, set-piece: that’s what you do during the week regardless of what happened at the weekend. There will be a focus on what we need to get right next week because of the opposition as well.

“I think we’ll have to be on it every action, every minute against South Africa because they're the best team in the world, world champions, however we want to describe them. We obviously have other players coming back into our squad that through their experience and their ability will raise our levels again.”

The Scotland team that ran in eight tries against Fiji was missing its French and English-based players, a consequence of playing the match before the international window had opened. Now the likes of Blair Kinghorn, Finn Russell and Ben White will return to bolster the squad. Arron Reed, the Sale Sharks winger, could also have an important role to play if both Darcy Graham and Kyle Rowe are ruled out. Graham, who was outstanding against Fiji and scored four tries to take his Scotland tally to 28 in 40 Tests, failed an initial head injury assessment and will be further monitored this week. Rowe, who showed great footwork to open the scoring, came off just before half-time with a hamstring injury.

Despite the selection restrictions which saw him pick a XV composed of nine Glasgow players and six from Edinburgh, Townsend was pleased to get a game under his belt before facing the Boks.

“Having played together, we’ll definitely improve on the back of that, just that understanding,” he said. “We were really pleased how quickly the players got back together. Perhaps that's a bonus when you're only picking from two teams. Going into a game, the cohesion is already there.

“We saw that in training this week, with two really good training days. Now we have to just adjust with the likes of Blair and Finn coming back into the selection mix. But these guys have been in our squad for a while now, so it should be smooth for them too.”

A shake-up of the South Africa coaching team following Jacques Nienaber’s departure for Leinster post-World Cup has seen Rassie Erasmus return to the head coach’s role after a stint as ‘director of rugby’. He has added former All Black Tony Brown as attack coach and ex-Ireland hooker Jerry Flannery as defence coach and there has been no let up in terms of results, with the Springboks tying a summer series against the Irish and then clinching the Rugby Championship five weeks ago for the first time since 2019.

Townsend said he had looked back at footage of Scotland’s World Cup match against South Africa but felt that the Boks’ more recent games were probably of more relevance.

“We’ve obviously used that in some of our meetings already and things that worked and didn’t work against them,” said the coach. “But they might have played about 15 games since then. So the series against Ireland, the Rugby Championship, those are all relevant games for us.

“They have changed their defensive coach since then, so there's little changes in their game. They’ve now changed their attacking coach since then as well. They’re definitely playing a different style of rugby. They’re moving the ball wide, they’ve got multiple threats throughout the team.

“It’ll be an open game, we believe. Our defence will have to be really on point, not just for their physicality that's coming, but also their threats when they move the ball wide.”

Scotland are trying to evolve, too, and were sharp in attack against an admittedly under-strength Fiji team. The hosts started brightly at Murrayfield, scoring four tries in 11 minutes through Rowe, Graham (two) and Huw Jones to build a 26-0 lead at the halfway point. But they found themselves pinned back on their own line during a sticky 15 minutes before half-time during which Ewan Ashman was yellow-carded and Isaiah Armstrong-Ravula and Ratu Meli Derenalagi both crossed for Fiji. Tevita Ikanivere, their captain, got their third try just after the break to cut the hosts’ lead to 29-17 but Scotland found another gear, finishing strongly. Graham added two more tries, and Duhan van der Merwe and Jones got one apiece and each had another disallowed. Van der Merwe’s score put him on 29 for Scotland, moving him clear again at the top of the all-time list after Graham had briefly drawn level with him.

“We ran something a little bit different with how we've been attacking and we saw more of that in the second half, but we'll need to analyse to see what needs to be worked on there,” said Townsend.

“I thought our contact work was really good. Fiji are one of the best jackal teams in world rugby, like South Africa. I felt that was a positive aspect, we were quick into contact. A couple of times we got line breaks, Duhan in particular presented the ball really well.”

Scorers: Scotland: Tries: Rowe, Graham 4, Jones 2, van der Merwe. Cons: Hastings 7. Pens: Hastings.

Fiji: Tries: Armstrong-Ravula, Derenalagi, Ikanivere. Con: Armstrong-Ravula.

Yellow cards: F Lomani (Fiji, 5min), A Vota (Fiji, 14min), E Ashman (Scotland, 32min).

Scotland: K Rowe (T Jordan 40); D Graham (McDowall 65), H Jones, S Tuipulotu, D van der Merwe; A Hastings, A Price (J Dobie 49; P Schoeman (R Sutherland 49), E Ashman (D Richardson 49), Z Fagerson (D Rae 59), G Gilchrist (M Williamson 59), S Cummings, M Fagerson, R Darge, J Dempsey (Brown 68).

Fiji: I Armstrong-Ravula; V Karawalevu, A Vota (W Nalaga 64), I Tabuavou (K Valetini 60), P Loganimasi; C Muntz, F Lomani (M Kuruvoli 64); H Hetet (L Natave 60), T Ikanivere, (M Dolokoto 61), S Tawake (J Koroiduadua 60), I Nasilasila, R Rotuisolia (M Vocevoce 50), M Derenalagi, K Salawa, E Canakaivata (V Miramira 68).

Referee: Craig Evans (Wales).

Attendance: 67,000.