Scotland already in ‘nothing to lose’ territory after South Africa defeat
Scotland's Finn Russell launches an attack against South Africa in Marseille.
Finn Russell is hoping his Scotland side can regroup after their loss against South Africa in their Rugby World Cup opener in Marseille on Sunday.
Scotland did well to match the defending champions’ physicality during the opening half in Marseille and were still in the game at half-time with the Boks holding a slender lead.
Poor second-half showing proves costly
However, things went pear-shaped for the Scots in the second half and they eventually suffered an 18-3 defeat.
That meant that it was Gregor Townsend’s charges’ lowest-scoring match since their opening game at the 2019 World Cup in Japan when Ireland sealed a 27-3 win against them.
“I’m very frustrated with the result but also with the second-half,” said Russell. “I don’t think we showed a true reflection of the team that we are. It’s very frustrating.”
Scotland’s next match is against Tonga in Nice on Sunday, September 24.
When they return to action, they know they have to be victorious in all three of their remaining games – the other two are against Romania and Ireland – if they are to have a chance of advancing from Pool B to the World Cup quarter finals.
“This was potentially the situation we were going to be in after the first game,” said Russell. “Ideally it wouldn’t have been, but now we’re in this situation we need to pick ourselves back up, we need to get going.
“We’ve got Tonga then Romania so we need to go into these games as best prepared as we can and looking to play as best we can.
“We had a 10-minute period where we let South Africa get two tries so we’ll chat about how we can get better after that second half and coming out firing straight away (after half-time) so that doesn’t happen again.
“As frustrated as we are, there is a lot to work on and still everything to play for.”
Scotland’s players have been given time off with their families in the early part of this week to recover from the mental and physical demands of facing the Springboks in their tournament opener.
Fly-half Russell, who is competing at his third World Cup, is confident they will come back ready for their must-win clash with Tonga.
“We’ve got two weeks now so we’ll have the next few days just getting away from rugby,” said the 30-year-old. “That was very physically demanding and mentally as well.
“The next few days we’ll get away from rugby, refresh ourselves and come back on Thursday and start preparing for Tonga. That’s a massive game for us.
“We’ve got everything to play for now and to an extent nothing to lose. As tough as it is to take, in sport you have to bounce back as quick as you can and I think the boys will do that.”
Russell was in the wars against the Boks and it looked like he may have to leave the field during the first half after a heavy collision left him grounded and receiving lengthy treatment.
Not seriously injured
“I’m alright,” he said. “I got a shot in the ribs and I think I was just pretty badly winded thankfully.
“The second one was a stinger which happens in rugby. These collisions happen and that’s part of it. Thankfully there’s nothing that bad.
“I’ll be good to go the next game.”
