Rassie expected Scotland to be tougher than England, explains late Moodie withdrawal

Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus, in being left satisfied by his team’s 42-28 win over Scotland at Loftus Versfeld, expected the Scottish to be tougher than the challenge presented by England.

Scotland may have failed to get out of the group stages of the past two Rugby World Cups in Japan and France, but they’ve remained dangerous customers and have got the better of England in recent years.

Since 2018, Scotland have won six of the past nine fixtures against England, including two defeats and a draw at Twickenham.

Scotland, like England, conceded 40 points against the Boks, but the Scottish never fully let the Boks out of their sights.

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Their reward was a four-try bonus point as they asked serious questions of the Boks in the second quarters of each half.

Erasmus tinkered with his team, his bench and even made a late change with Ethan Hooker replacing Canan Moodie, and he had a few international questions answered.

“I know the English are going to be upset, but we thought the Scottish were going to be tougher than the English,” Erasmus said.

“They beat England and they were just missing Huw Jones and Blair Kinghorn, but now we know that some guys need a lot of work to stay in and some guys have made it.

“It’s unfortunate that a guy like Ethan got pinged in the mouth and there wasn’t even a head knock with him.

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“We had the six-two split and when he came off, Handre Pollard had to go to 12 and he got man of the match.

“We had been training with Handre Pollard at 12 in the past four weeks, so we also got an answer there.”

Moodie was the third player over the last two weeks