‘Took the Springboks…’: Why Scotland are favourites for Australia clash

Two-time Rugby World Cup winner Tim Horan considers Scotland the “favourite” for this weekend’s Autumn Nations Series clash with Australia. The Wallabies are unbeaten on their Spring Tour but will need to win at Murrayfield to keep their grand slam hopes alive.

With coach Joe Schmidt at the helm, the Wallabies have generated some serious buzz in Australia after recording statement wins over England 42-37 at Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium and a 52-20 demolition of Warren Gatland’s Wales at the Principality Stadium.

The British and Irish Lions Series is just around the corner, so this end-of-year tour was always going to be a crucial series of markers for the Wallabies. At least so far, the men in gold have passed every test that’s come their way, but it doesn’t get any easier.

In the most recent meeting between the sides in 2022, Blair Kinghorn missed a last-minute penalty as Australia claimed a tight win at Murrayfield. But the Scots have won a majority of the last five Tests between the two proud rugby sides at their famed Edinburgh fortress.

While history won’t necessarily count for much once play gets underway in the early hours of Monday morning (AEDT), some may consider Australia the underdogs – as does Wallabies legend Tim Horan who expressed that view this week.

“Even though the Wallabies have won their last two Test matches, Scotland are favourite, and probably deserve to be where they are on the rankings,” Horan explained on Stan Sports’ Rugby Heaven. “They took the Springboks to the end.

“… You get confidence by winning, you get confidence by making sure your patterns of play are right so everyone’s confident going into this Wallaby (game). They’ll play, they won’t sit back and try and stop the Wallabies, the Wallabies will have to stop Scotland.”

Scotland only won two of their five matches during this year’s Six Nations, and they were a slender 27-26 win over Wales in Cardiff and a Calcutta Cup triumph over the English 30-21. While they didn’t win another game, Gregor Townsend’s men still put on a show.

The Scots pushed international heavyweights France and Ireland close, and also put up a valiant fight against Italy’s Azzurri. More recently, they got the better of Fiji and performed admirably during a defeat to the two-time defending world champion Springboks.

“They’ve got Finn Russell, as is Darcy Graham the way he’s been playing. They’ll want to get the ball wide Scotland and attack the Wallabies out wide in that 15 channel,” Horan had said earlier.

“The way that Gregor Townsend coaches the team, it’s quick ruck ball, gets some switch, get across the advantage line so they actually play quite a similar way to the Wallabies.

Shepherd: “Probably 12 or 13 of the guys that are going to be in the 23 this weekend, they play for the Glasgow Warriors… these guys are playing 30-plus games together. They’re very familiar with each other, the style of game they play.

“Gregor Townsend, of course, former coach of the Glasgow Warriors as well. It’s a familiarity that they’ve got and they’re going to be a tough team to beat. They’re certainly one of the most improved nations out of the tier ones.”