Scotland reject 'free hit' approach against South Africa with belief high amid unfavourable history

The Springboks, who have named a much changed side for the fixture, are heavy favourites going into the contest which will be played at Loftus Versfeld - a venue no team other than the mighty All Blacks has beaten them at since 1994. Scotland have never conquered the Boks in South Africa and haven’t won a Test against them since 2010’s 21-17 victory at Murrayfield.

That history against the side who are ranked number one in the world and are back-to-back world champions has led many to describe this weekend’s clash a ‘free hit’ due to there being very little expectation that Gregor Townsend’s side should leave Pretoria with the win. However, that is certainly not the feeling amongst the players, especially after their impressive 47-38 win over Argentina in Cordoba last weekend.

Scotland lock rejects ‘nothing to lose’ approach but knows how difficult South Africa match will be

Ahead of the match, Cummings said: “I think you've always got something to lose when you're playing international rugby, to be honest. We're not going there to lose but say we at least we gave it a good shot.

“We're going there to play our best rugby, and we believe that we can get a result if we put our best rugby out there. It's a massive occasion, obviously playing in Loftus, quite a few of us have played there a few times, so we're a bit more used to it, but i's obviously going to be a massive occasion and we're excited for it.”

On the challenge presented by the Springboks, the Glasgow Warriors lock added: “There's obviously a lot of power there, but they are also really confident in how they want to play. It doesn't really matter who's playing - they've got world-class players in there and they all play the same way - they all buy into the system really well, but that's something we believe we do as well.

"They've got incredible players that are well-coached and a really good system going but we'll just try and play our best rugby, and we believe that could be enough. They're a very good team.

“We'll look at them over the next couple of days and see what we want to do against them, but we're going to stick to our identity. We love to play how we play so that's what you're going to see."

Scotland lock celebrates 50th cap in style by scoring try in memorable away win

Cummings was one of two Scotland players, along with fellow British & Irish Lion Pierre Schoeman, to earn their 50th cap in the win over Argentina last weekend. It was an occasion that the 29-year-old relished and was made all the better by the result.

“Playing in Argentina is always a pretty cool occasion,” he explained, “and it was good to play here in a rugby stronghold, and Argentina are obviously a class team. It was a massive moment for me and Schoey and for our families, so it was great. We knew Argentina have a lot of threats so we knew we were going to have to score some tries in the game."

He was also grateful to avoid having to sing a song in the dressing room thanks to a Scotstoun teammate making his debut. “Thankfully, Gregor Hiddleston having his first cap has taken the focus off me, so happy with that."

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