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Boks warned Scotland are a different beast from World Cup encounter
Scott Cummings believes Scotland have to beat one of the best teams ever to grace world rugby if they are to realise their own dreams of joining the elite.
Gregor Townsend’s side take on back-to-back world champions South Africa at Murrayfield on Sunday, having opened their Autumn Nations Series campaign with a 57-17 thrashing of Fiji.
The Springboks are in Edinburgh this week for their first of three successive Tests against Home Nations sides – with further dates against England and Wales to follow – buoyed by their recent Rugby Championship triumph.
That dominant campaign extended the Boks’ record to 12 wins in their last 14 Tests since a pool defeat by Ireland at last year’s Rugby World Cup, their only setbacks a 24-25 loss to the Irish back in July and another single-point defeat – 29-28 – in Argentina.
Scotland have yet to beat any of the top three sides in the world under head coach Townsend, with 10 straight defeats by Ireland, three against South Africa and two by New Zealand.
The last of those losses to the Springboks came in Marseille last September when, after a closely-contested first 40 minutes, the Boks exerted themselves with two tries early in the second half and shut down the Scots’ attack with an iron-like grip to win their RWC pool encounter 18-3.
Glasgow lock Cummings insisted that defeat will not provide particular motivation on Sunday, but agreed Scotland need a statement victory against one of the world’s top three if they are to fulfil their potential as a team.
“I think playing the world champions is all the motivation you need,” he said. “There were a lot of parts of that (World Cup) game where we did play well. It was 6-3 at half-time. We defended well in that first half, a lot of great set-pieces and stuff.
“Obviously we’ll look at that game to see where we can improve. We’ve changed a couple of things so there’ll be stuff that we’ll be looking to try against them. It’s not all about stopping them. It’s about us imposing our game on them as much as we can.
“In international rugby, you want to play against the best teams if you want to improve as a team. You don’t want to be playing easy matches. Scotland have obviously been pushing throughout the years, but we need to take that next step. There’s no point in us just staying where we are.
“We want to push on, try and properly compete with those big teams in the world. You’re going to come up against great players and South Africa are obviously some of the best just now.
“Getting to have a game at Murrayfield against them is a big moment for us this week, a really important one. They’ve been back-to-back world champions and are that big-ticket match.
“The Springboks play a very structured style, so we’re going to have to find ways to break it up and impose our own game plan. We’re going to be playing against some of the best but we’re excited for it. We’ll be going in there with some confidence. It’s at Murrayfield and we can’t wait for next weekend.”
Cummings, 27, won his 40th cap against Fiji alongside Grant Gilchrist in Scotland’s boiler room.
After the Pacific Islanders recovered from a 26-0 deficit to make it 29-17 early in the second half, a third and fourth try from the returning Darcy Graham took Scotland clear before further late scores from Duhan van der Merwe and Huw Jones embellished an encouraging eight-try victory.
“It’s great to have Darcy back,” Cummings said of the wing who has now scored 16 tries in his last nine Tests. “He’s an unbelievable player, whenever he plays for Scotland.
“He’s got the ability to spark something. Even that cross-field kick from Adam (Hastings) – there’s just this bit of magic, getting the touch on the ball and scoring a try. We’ve missed him and we’re excited to see what he can do over the next years to come.
“It’s funny, we’ve got a team full of players who can create magic moments, we definitely do, but it’s also up to the forward pack to give them the platform to be on it.
“We know that a lot of the time if those magic moments are happening, us forwards are doing a good job in creating the space for players like that. We’ve got such good quality backs that can create something, but we have to do the hard yards up front as well to try and provide the space for them.”
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