Former World Cup winner says Scotland don’t have ‘shooting power’ to beat Boks

Former Springbok centre Jaque Fourie has firmly backed the Springboks to do the business and beat Scotland in their Rugby World Cup opener at the Stade de Marseille on Sunday evening.

Fourie, who is currently an assistant coach at the Lions, is confident that the Boks will be too strong for the Scots, despite their impressive form this year, and believes that the defending champs will kick-start their tournament with a strong win.

He is also sure that the Boks will emerge from the so-called ‘pool of death’ and reach the knockouts where anything can happen.

“Scotland is not going to be a walk over. But I just cannot see them beating us on Sunday, no matter who we pick. I don’t think that they have enough shooting power to beat us,” explained Fourie.

“They might call it the ‘group of death’ but it’s a World Cup … and we have a really strong squad that can go all the way.

“The beauty of this competition is you have to beat the best to win it. The top two teams go through and then from the quarterfinals it is knockout rugby.”

Intensity and physicality

Fourie continued: “It is usually the strongest two teams that progress from the pool and even if there is a hiccup (like the Boks losing to Japan in 2015) you can usually bounce back and make it through.

“But in knockout rugby anything can happen, so it gives teams that might not be as good as another a chance if they can outperform them on the day. So from the quarterfinals on it is anyone’s game.”

The Boks head into the World Cup with a lot of confidence, having picked up record wins over Wales and the All Blacks in their final two warm-up games and although not too much should be read into those results, Fourie believes that the real style of the team was on full display at Twickenham.

The team will thus be looking to replicate those performances in their game against Scotland and they will be going into the game with plenty of momentum off the back of four straight wins.

“Everyone would agree that in the game that we played against New Zealand (at Twickenham), the intensity and physicality that we played at is South African and I think going into this weekend’s game the guys are ready,” said Fourie.

“They have done their homework, they know what they need to do and I think it’s going to be a good World Cup for South Africa.”

Following their opener against Scotland the Boks face Romania, Ireland and then close off their pool phase against Tonga.