Scots bullish about beating South Africa

DURBAN - George Graham feels it is high time that Scotland earn their first win over the Springboks in South Africa when the teams clash on Saturday in the first of two rugby tests.

"The time is always right for a bit of history," Scotland assistant coach Graham told a media conference on Tuesday.

"Rules are there to be broken and records are there to be broken as well."

All four of Scotland's victories in the 16 matches they have played against the Springboks since the teams first met in Glasgow in 1906 have been achieved at home.

However, Graham, who earned 25 test caps in the Scottish front row, was under no illusion that the visitors' forwards, in particular, faced a huge challenge.

"From a scrummaging point of view it doesn't get much better (than South Africa)," Graham said. It's a test of a pack's character to see how you judge yourselves against the Springboks.

Graham felt that Scotland would not read much into the lacklustre performance of the South African side that beat a World 15 30-27 in Johannesburg on Saturday.

"From a coaching point of view I don't think you could find out much of what is going to happen on Saturday, which will be a completely different game," Graham said.

"Springbok coach Jake White was probably trying a few different combinations and he would probably have learnt more from that game than we did.

- REUTERS