SCOTLAND cannot afford to play cautiously against Australia in Sunday’s Rugby World Cup quarter-final in the hope of sneaking a narrow win, according to Mark Bennett. The score was 9-6 and 9-8 on the last two occasions when the Scots beat the Wallabies, but, with good weather forecast for Twickenham, a more open game is probable.
“We’re going to go out and attack and take the game to them,” the Glasgow centre predicted. “The only way we’re going to beat them is by going at them. We’re not going to win by sitting off and trying to stay in the game till the latter stages.
“We want to go at them, though I’ve no doubt they’ll be saying exactly the same. So I reckon you could be in for a good one.”
There is little in the form book to predict whether the match will be good, bad or indifferent, or indeed what kind of contest it will turn out to be. Scotland’s last pool game, the win over Samoa, was high-scoring and frantic, with both attacks getting the better of their opposing defences. Australia’s 15-6 win over Wales, by contrast, was characterised by some magnificent defence, above all when the winners were down to 13 men because of a double sin-binning.
The Welsh were unable to profit from their two-man advantage, but Bennett displayed some of his natural ebullience and self-confidence when asked how he thought Scotland would cope in a similar situation. “If we’ve got numbers up it’s just a case of picking a man off and moving the ball,” he said. “A simple overlap. I’d like to think I could do something in that situation.”
A major concern for Scotland this week has been how to ensure the same defensive flaws exposed by Samoa do not recur. As one of the shortest and lightest members of the team, Bennett is aware he can be targeted by opponents’ big runners, but, while respectful of Australia’s talent, he is sure that he and his team-mates are up for the challenge and have learned from last week’s Pool B game in Newcastle.
“I think they’re a smart team. They play some exciting rugby, expansive rugby. You’ve got [Matt] Giteau at 12, an outstanding player. I played against him for Glasgow against Toulon and he was excellent that day. I’m looking forward to that battle.
“They have a big man at 13 [Tevita Kuridrani] who will always try to get over the gain line. It’s a challenge for us, but I’m always up against someone who’s bigger than me, so I’m used to it now.
“The Samoans came out and really threw the ball about. They were just playing in a way we maybe weren’t quite expecting. They were a lot more loose than we expected and they really took the game to us. That was the best rugby they’ve played by far and they put us under a lot of pressure.
“We didn’t help ourselves with some of our decisions and some of the ways we set up, but we know where we went wrong and also know that we’re a better side than that. There are no worries.
“The main thing was getting the win. We knew that doing that meant we were through, so even though we were under pressure we managed to do what we needed to do.”
That ability to close out a narrow game, especially one in which they had not been at their best for large passages, is the most obvious way in which Scotland have improved this year. In the Six Nations, it seemed that they were able to find several different ways to lose a tight match, but first in their warm-up games against Italy, and then in the World Cup against Samoa, they have demonstrated a greater maturity.
“It has been a huge change,” Bennett continued. “We performed pretty well in the Six Nations, played some good rugby and exciting rugby, but just didn’t get the results. You’re probably sick of hearing me say that, but it felt in the Six Nations that we were getting somewhere and building something good, and we’re starting to see that again. You’re starting to see that we’re a much better side then we were.
“We were playing good rugby and it was always just little things in the Six Nations. If one or two passes had stuck we would have been scoring tries. That’s what we’re trying to do. It makes a big difference when you’re finishing them off.”
Despite that improvement, Scotland will be underdogs on Sunday. It is a position which Bennett believes suits the squad.
“It tends to be the way it goes. We always seem to be up against it and everyone does write us off, but I think the Scottish culture thrives on that.
“I’m looking forward to it. It’s a huge opportunity for us. We’ve got nothing to lose, because no-one is expecting us to do well bar the squad itself. So yeah, let’s get into them.”
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