THE Scotland camp faces an anxious 24 hours before learning whether Finn Russell will be fit to face South Africa on Saturday after the playmaker injured an ankle during yesterday’s 39-16 win over the United States. Russell was helped off the pitch in the second half and was later seen clutching an ice pack to his leg.
Grant Gilchrist is the other main injury concern after being forced off midway through the first half with a suspected upper-leg injury. True to habit, however, Vern Cotter, the head coach, refused to speculate on the likelihood that either the lock or the stand-off would miss the potential Pool B decider against the Springboks.
“We’ll have to wait 24 hours before we get anything on Finn and Grant,” Cotter said. “Both of those players have knocks and bumps, so we’ll need to have a look.
“Grant, we’re not sure yet. It might be an adductor injury, we’re not sure. You have to wait 24 hours, I’m sorry, it’s never very accurate right now.”
After a patchy first half which ended with the Americans 13-6 ahead, Scotland put in an excellent second 40, scoring five tries to claim a bonus point for the second game in succession. The result takes them back to the top of the pool, in which each team has now played two and has two to play.
“We’re very happy to get the win and the bonus point,” Cotter added. “We weren’t particularly accurate in the first 40 - scoring early in the second half got us back on track. We managed to build through a reasonably difficult day of rugby with a win.
“We found a way to win. Seven down at half-time, it’s always nice to turn things around. It shows that the players are finding a way to win, which is important. We managed to wear down the States team, who were well prepared and very physical.
“Look, we’ve got through those two [matches]. We’ve played some reasonable rugby, adapted to difficult situations. The guys can take a bit of self-belief into the next two games. That will be important.”
Having also lost to Samoa, the Americans look set to finish bottom of the pool. Their captain, Chris Wyles, accepted that, while his own side had competed well, Scotland had simply been superior.
“They took hold of the second half and won it comfortably,” he said. “We simply weren’t good enough in the second half. I don’t think the scoreline is that harsh.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here