Scotland's slow starts concern Vern Cotter as South Africa win in Newcastle
Saturday 3 October 2015 20:57, UK
Vern Cotter said he would address Scotland's slow starts after South Africa handed them a first World Cup defeat.
The Scots were able to recover from sluggish openings to beat Japan and the United States, but a second-half improvement against the Springboks could not prevent a 34-16 defeat.
Scotland trailed 20-3 at the break, and Cotter said: "I think the score is a pretty fair reflection of the game. They dominated the contact area and we struggled to move forward.
"In the second half I though the players stepped up and matched the intensity at the breakdown. It was a better second half. Is there a reason why we've started slowly in all three games? It's a valid question.
"I'm unsure but it's something we will finding out why we don't seem to have that confidence to start off well and put our game-plan in ruthlessly from the start. It will be something that is talked about this week."
Captain Greig Laidlaw offered an explanation, but not an excuse, for Scotland's hesitancy, saying: "We're playing good teams so it takes time to break them down Both Japan and the US flew out heavy at us from the line and in defence.
"But we probably are starting slightly slow and we need to fix that before the Samoa game because clearly they are going to come out the blocks very quickly."
That Samoa game is now key to the Scots' quarter-final chances: victory will guarantee progress, and the Samoans are already out.
Cotter said: "I'm sure the Samoans will want to finish the competition well and I expect them to. I can get our manager to send them a couple of crates of beer to try and convince them [that they have nothing to play for] but I don't think it will!"
South Africa - beaten by Japan in their opener - now top the group, and their head coach Heyneke Meyer said: "We knew this was a must-win game and we were under an immense amount of pressure. I'm just thankful we got through this game.
"We're at our best when the whole world writes us off. I don't know why, it's just part of our mentality, so we need to keep that pressure upon ourselves."
