QBE Autumn Internationals - Scotland v South Africa

This year’s Autumn Internationals have a fantastic twist with the end of year Rankings for the World Cup and Scotland can give themselves a fighting chance of staying in the second seeding group and beating South Africa.

Andy Robinson’s are currently ranked 9th in the world and unless they can turnover South Africa this weekend then they must accept a third tier seeding for the pool draw for the 2015 tournament. That means they will face one of the top four in the world - currently New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and France – and one of those sides ranked 5th-8th - currently England, Wales, Ireland and Argentina - in three years' time. Facing both England and Argentina saw them fail to make the quarters in New Zealand and back on home turf they’ll be loathe to throw away their chances before they’ve begun.

However it’s not all bad for Robinson’s men. Three wins out of three in the Summer was an encouraging return for a side who consistently create but fail to finish, but the arrival of Tim Visser after a residency period has fixed that judged against two tired against the All Blacks, four tries in three Test appearances and 6 in 9 from the Pro 12. The All Blacks may have roundly thrashed the Scots but they showed so much to be encouraged about in scoring their 22 points and while the sloppy defence was worrying, there’s no doubting that they should be able to give South Africa a real test.

Since taking over from the enigmatic and controversial Peter De Villers, Henkye Meyer has struggled badly to create a side in his own image and while the aimless placekicking of Morne Steyn can be blamed for at least two of their defeats, they failed to win an away game all Championship. Meyer has brought an even weaker side for the overseas tests – namely through the heart problem to ‘The Beast’ – along with injuries to Bryan Habana and Retief Goosen amongst others, and their win against Ireland last week has to rank as one of the poorest performances of sometime from the Springboks, who used a 20 minute blast to score 13 points and turnover the game when Jamie Heaslip was in the bin. Before that an Ireland side missing Brian O'Driscoll, Sean O'Brien, Rob Kearney, Rory Best, Paul O’Connell and Stephen Ferris had utterly dominated the Boks, who might get a nasty surprise if they feel they can roll Scotland over physically. Take the hosts with a start of 12 points, or the visitors to grind out a win by 1-12 if you must.

Advice

2 pts Scotland +12 (10/11 Bet Victor, Paddy Power)