Time to crush some Scottish flowers

David Rush, South Coast Herald

The one is that the Scots are actually playing some pretty good rugby and could win.

The second is that the Boks are still smarting after the loss to these Japanese, despite the subsequent win over Samoa.

And so will be a furious mood, taking no passengers and showing no mercy whatsoever, crushing any Scottish resistance into the turf.

Let’s hope it’s the latter.

In terms of the team selection, there are changes, some forced, some not.

Captain Jean de Villiers’s injury means that Jesse Kriel comes in at 13. News is that De Villiers’s operation went well.

So the backline is: 9 Fourie du Preez, 10 Handré Pollard, 11 Bryan Habana, 12 Damian de Allende, 13 Jesse Kriel, 14 JP Pietersen, 15 Willie le Roux.

This looks solid. The bench will include Ruan Pienaar, Pat Lambie and Jan Serfontein, who has been flown in to replace De Villiers.

The scrum has a very powerful look, with Lood de Jager back in the starting line-up due to an injury to Victor Matfield,

Bismarck du Plessis is back at hooker, with Adriaan Strauss on the bench. This is disappointing as it seemed Strauss added calm leadership against Samoa, and Schalk Brits added some ‘zing’ off the bench.

So the scrum is: 1 Tendai Mtawariria, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 3 Jannnie du Plessis, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 5 Lood de Jager, 6 Francois Louw, 7 Schalk Burger, 8 Duane Vermeulen.

Bench is Trevor Nyakane, Adriaan Strauss, Frans Malherbe, Pieter-Steph du Toit and Willem Alberts.

It’s a bit unlucky for Siya Kolisi, but Du Toit and Alberts should add some serious power in the last 20 minutes or so.

Much has been said about the captaincy, which has gone to Fourie du Preez for this game. Schalk Burger is the vice-captain.

It should be a cracking encounter. Stock up on biltong and enjoy.