Hamish Watson: English & French packs prepared us for Springboks

Scottish flanker Hamish Watson has insisted that he is not worried about the physical battle that comes with clashing with the Springbok pack that he will line up against at Murrayfield on Saturday.

A number of the Springbok forwards outweigh their Scottish counterparts with Scotland's heaviest forward Jonny Gray 7kgs lighter than his opposite number RG Snyman. 

Watson, who will face South Africa for the first time in international rugby at the weekend, insists it is not something he thinks too much about.

The 27-year-old said: “When you’re lining up in the tunnel, I am probably one of the smaller players bar the 9s but it’s something you get used to – if you don’t, you’ll be out [of the team].   I’m not growing any bigger but you just deal with it and try to use it to your advantage."

“It’s a big challenge but look at the Six Nations, the French pack are massive, the English pack are pretty massive and we won both of those games at home so we’re confident we can deal with their size. They’re big men and he’ll probably have a couple of stones on me.”

Despite having never faced the Springboks, Watson knows exactly what to expect: “It’s going to be a really tough challenge – they’re probably one of the most physical teams in world rugby, if not the most so its going to be a really tough challenge and definitely up front we’ve got to match that if we’re going to win the game.

“We’re going to have to front-up physically.”

Full Story via: Scrummagazine