Scots ‘not going to Loftus to lose’

Lock Scott Cummings insists Scotland aren’t treating Saturday’s clash with the Springboks as a ‘free hit’, despite the world champions’ formidable record on home soil.

The Scots have never beaten the Boks in the Republic and have not won a Test against the South Africans since a 21-17 victory at Murrayfield in 2010.

However, a 47-38 Nations Championship win for Gregor Townsend’s men in Argentina has strengthened belief that they can challenge the world’s top-ranked team at Loftus.

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“I think you’ve always got something to lose when you’re playing international rugby,” Cummings said.

“We’re not going there to lose but say we at least gave it a good shot. We’re going there to play our best rugby, and we believe that we can get a result if we put our best rugby out there.

“It’s a massive occasion, obviously playing in Loftus. Quite a few of us have played there a few times, so we’re a bit more used to it, but it’s obviously going to be a massive occasion and we’re excited for it.”

Rassie Eramus has named a much-changed Bok 23 for this week, with 10 changes to the starting XV that beat England on Saturday, but Cummings expects the same challenge from the hosts.

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“It doesn’t really matter who’s playing,” he said. “They’ve got world-class players in there and they all play the same way. They all buy into the system really well, but that’s something we believe we do as well.

“They’ve got incredible players that are well coached and a really good system going, but we’ll just try and play our best rugby, and we believe that could be enough.

“We’ll look at them over the next couple of days and see what we want to do against them, but we’re going to stick to our identity. We love to play how we play, so that’s what you’re going to see.”

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