South Africa v Scotland LIVE: Rugby World Cup build-up and latest updates

Box-office starter to top-heavy group

Beyond the opening game between France and New Zealand on Friday, the Scots’ showdown with the Springboks is the most eye-catching of the first round of pool fixtures. Indeed, Sunday’s match in Marseille is for higher stakes than the opening game in Paris given the strength of Pool B and the reduced margin for error.

The fact the draw was made back in 2020, when several teams were in notably different shape to what they are now, has led to a situation whereby three of the current top five in the world are in the same group. One of South Africa, Ireland or Scotland is guaranteed to be eliminated at the group stage.

Each of the head-to-heads between those three teams are sure to be crucial in deciding who qualifies, assuming they all make light work of both Tonga and Romania. Victory for either team at Stade Velodrome will stand them in good stead to progress from this heavyweight section.

It’s been a fun start to proceedings in Toulouse where Chile are playing their first-ever Rugby World Cup match.

In fact, the South Americans took the lead when Rodrigo Fernandez collected a loose ball and bundled over the whitewash after just six minutes. Japan hit back immediately however as Amato Fakatava burst through for the try to level things up at 7-7. That’s how it remains midway through the first half.

Fully-fit Darcy Graham declared that he and Duhan van der Merwe are intent on filling their boots at the World Cup as they chase down Scotland’s all-time try record.

The free-scoring Edinburgh pair have developed into two of the most dangerous wings in world rugby and are aiming to showcase their finishing ability on the biggest stage of all in France, with the formidable South Africans first up in Marseille on Sunday evening.

The recently-retired Stuart Hogg currently holds the Scottish record with 27 but Van Der Merwe has got himself up to joint-fifth with Tommy Seymour after scoring three in his last two matches to take his tally to 20, while Graham is seventh with 19 after scoring seven tries in his last four international outings.

The 2023 Rugby World Cup will see a revamped foul play process in place, with the introduction of the “TMO bunker” system at the tournament for the first time.

The introduction follows a number of World Rugby trials during the course of the last year, including the Summer Nations Series and Rugby Championship.

The “bunker” system is designed to improve accuracy of decision making and avoid significant disruptions to the flow of games, and has already been utilised in a couple of high profile moments ahead of the World Cup.

The Rugby World Cup starts on September 8 when host nation France take on New Zealand, in a match set to kick-start a thrilling competition.

An unbalanced draw sets up intrigue where sides other than the favourites of Ireland, France, New Zealand and South Africa could go further into the tournament than expected.

Here is a full guide to all the squads taking part in the tournament in France.

I’m massively excited for the World Cup. After announcing my retirement, this is the first opportunity I’ve ever had to be a genuine fan of rugby and see everything the tournament has to offer. A World Cup only comes around every four years. Everyone has been going hammer and tongs, knocking lumps out of each other to get to where they want to be.

There’s going to be an incredible amount of excitement and support across France. It’s a chance for rugby to really grow and show what a great sport it is. Admittedly, it has been struggling slightly – look at the Gallagher Premiership with three teams going bust. Rugby isn’t in a fantastic place by any stretch of the imagination, but this is a brilliant opportunity to put it back on the biggest stage and show what it is really about.

I’ve had so many different conversations about who is going to qualify from the groups and who is going to win, and every time I do, I change my mind – on everything. Ireland are in with a good chance. I think New Zealand will win the opening game this weekend but that will then galvanise the French to be bigger and better as the tournament goes on.

After months of toil and trouble, it took a Marseille cauldron for England to find their magic brew. It may not prove the elixir of Rugby World Cup life but on a night that threatened disaster after Tom Curry’s third-minute sending off at a bubbling Stade Velodrome, England came to the boil.

The win was an odd concoction, a convincing final margin even with Argentina scoring the encounter’s only try two minutes from time. It was a night for leaders, and England’s stood up. Courtney Lawes led the defensive effort, Manu Tuilagi and Maro Itoje were back to their best. But it was George Ford, playing the pragmatist, who took control to kick England to a faith-restoring victory.

Ford’s 27 points came from nine strikes of his right boot, three drop goals, six from the tee. English fly halves tend to enjoy the World Cup stage, and Ford’s performance here was a display of command, correctness and clarity. Not all ills are cured, clearly, but how England needed this sort of showing, their fire finally burning in the south of France heat.

A more emphatic declaration of World Cup intent there could not have been. As the All Blacks hauled themselves off the Twickenham pitch, battered, bruised and beaten by a record margin, South Africa were already looking at what was next. A fortnight before the tournament, and four years on from a triumph that united a nation, the world champion Springboks were back in business and had their eyes fixed squarely on a World Cup prize.

The 36-7 win counted for nothing tangible in the context of the tournament to come but the message was clear.

Ireland and France may have risen to form a leading quartet of contenders but the Webb Ellis Cup will not be prized easily out of South Africa’s hands.

Pessimism can sometimes seem to come a little too naturally to Scottish rugby fans, a certain fatalism worn almost as a badge of honour after too many days of disappointment and dejection, of squandered opportunities and wondering what might have been.

It perhaps feels somewhat appropriate, then, for Gregor Townsend to have assembled perhaps the finest side in the nation’s long rugby history and still know a second successive World Cup pool stage effort is on the cards if the tournament goes to form. Plenty has already been written about the lopsided draw but it feels particularly cruel to the Scots, inarguably among the top five sides in the world but drawn together with two of the four top favourites in the pool.

Townsend’s band of history makers have risen to new heights over these last four years, turning Calcutta Cup hope almost into expectation and building further through these last few months. Top to bottom, the likely 23 that will begin the tournament against South Africa in Marseille contains few clear weaknesses.

A close affair in the first half but South Africa will have the stamina in the second to ensure they start their World Cup defence with a hard fought for victory over Scotland.

South Africa 24-15 Scotland