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Kolisi and Boks ready for ‘one of strongest Scottish sides’
This is the second match for the South Africans on their UK tour, having beaten Wales in Cardiff last week.
Springbok captain Siya Kolisi says Scotland have an all-round game that will challenge his team in many departments. Picture: Steve Haag/Gallo Images/Getty Images
The Springboks are ready for what is set to be one of the toughest battles the team has faced against Scotland in many years when the sides go head to head in their end-of-year-tour clash at Murrayfield on Saturday afternoon (kickoff 3pm).
Captain Siya Kolisi is fully aware of the danger of a Scotland side that has steadily improved over the years and his now on par with their fellow UK teams and will be fired up to claim another win over Southern Hemisphere opposition after they beat Australia last weekend.
The Boks have history on their side having won 22 of their 27 clashes in all, have won their last six match-ups and have not lost at Murrayfield since 2010, however those stats are set to be put to the test in what should be an enthralling game.
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“I definitely think this is one of the strongest Scottish sides. I haven’t played many games against Scotland but you can see in the way that they play and the number of players that made the British and Irish Lions side how good they are,” said Kolisi, “so we are looking forward to a hard battle.
“Scotland is a great all-round team, they have a very good running and kicking game, their set piece is very good as you saw in their performance in the scrum last week (against Australia), so we are going to be challenged in all aspects of the game.
“Their breakdown is good, you saw some crucial steals close to the line, so they have guys that can steal the ball. They have a very good attacking flyhalf and they have a lot of experience too with (Stuart) Hogg at the back, so we have prepared for an all-round game.”
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The Boks thus are just fully focussed on what they can control which is their own game and they will be going all out to try and keep their impressive record over the hosts going.
“Our biggest focus this week has been on what we can do as a team to make our plan work because we can’t control what they throw at us. They might throw something new and we can’t control that,” admitted Kolisi.
“But what we can control is what we do to them and make sure that we put our plan into action.”
