Played four, won three, lost one - and that by a mere three points. Scotland have had a relatively successful Summer Series, one made all the more productive by the fact that, while some imperfections remain glaringly evident, they are continuing to make steady progress as a squad.
That much was evident at Murrayfield on Saturday when, after a turgid first half against Georgia, Gregor Townsend’s team ran in five unanswered second-half tries to win 33-6. They had trailed at half-time as they had done in their three previous Rugby World Cup warm-up matches; and, as they did against both Italy and France at home, they found a way to win. True, they lost to France in Saint-Etienne when a late penalty made the difference between the teams, but a lengthy second-half spell in that game was arguably the best they have played over the past four weeks.
Now, though, the time for rehearsals is over. It is time, instead, to turn promise into practice, and to win the games that count. That will be an altogether different challenge, especially given the awe-inspiring form shown by their next opponents, South Africa, in a record-breaking 35-7 win over the All Blacks on Friday night.
But Townsend, for one, remains hopeful. And far from shrinking from the task of meeting the mighty Springboks in Marseille a week on Sunday, the head coach is relishing the prospect of watching his players rise to the occasion.
“It will be amazing to be involved in,” he said. “I can’t wait for our players to experience that - those for the first time, but also those that have been at one, two, three World Cups, that can go with real belief that we can create something special.
“I thought Friday was the best South Africa have played for a number of years. So they’ll be delighted they’ve got a game out two weeks before the World Cup.
“And it could have been much more. In the first 20 minutes they were fairly dominant and were maybe held up over the line a couple of times, and in the second half with a one-man advantage they probably would have expected another try on the board.
“It probably didn’t change much of what we were thinking. We know South Africa are very strong in certain areas.
“They’re playing more rugby. That was maybe the question that needed answered: would they go to the World Cup and shut up shop or would they still play this open rugby when they do have the opportunities?
“And they did that on Friday night, so it’s going to be a more open game, which could work one of two ways. One way it works for them and they get their talented back line on ball more. The second way it means the game is much more open, which plays to a game that we are aiming to create, and a game that we thrive in.”
The magnitude of the task facing Scotland as they bid to qualify from their pool became, if anything, even more apparent as a result of that Springboks-New Zealand match at Twickenham: the win was enough to take the South Africans above their arch-rivals in the official World Rankings to No 2 from their previous position of No 3. But Townsend, whose No 5-ranked team will also take on world No 1 Ireland as well as Tonga and Romania in Pool B, sees it differently.
“You could look at it one way and go ‘South Africa are back to their best form, No 2 in the world now, world champions’, but they’re always going to be one of the top teams in the world,” he continued. “But also you can look at it another way and go ‘World rugby is great just now. Teams are beating each other.’
“New Zealand beat South Africa by about 15 points six weeks ago. Fiji beat England on Saturday.
“There are going to be upsets, and that’s what we’re aiming to do - create a couple of upsets in that pool.”
The squad will train on two days this week before flying out to France at the weekend, and then the countdown to that match on 10 September begins in earnest. With Darcy Graham due to resume training soon after a light thigh strain ruled him out of facing Georgia, Townsend has a fully fit squad of 33 to choose from for South Africa.
Not that he will start his selection from scratch. Probably two-thirds of the side that began the Georgia game will start against the Springboks, while the remaining members of the starting line-up have very likely already been decided by Townsend and his assistants. “It’s probably not set in stone,” he said. “We’ll have a good look at that [Georgia] game again in depth. I’m more clear on the 15 than the 23, and I know there are players who put their hand up on Saturday to come into the mix, whether in the 15 or more likely the bench. “That’s been a really positive outcome of these four games – our bench has played really well, and we’ve finished every game stronger than our opposition. That’s a credit to the fitness of the squad and what they’ve done during the campaign, but also the eight guys making a difference in the last 20 minutes of games and they certainly did that on Saturday.”
