Boks need to blunt Scotland’s midfield threat

The form that the Glasgow Warriors midfield pair of Sione Tuipulotu and Huw Jones have displayed for both club and country over the past few weeks have marked them as one of the biggest threats to the Springbok chances of getting their tour off to a positive start on Sunday.

The strong ball carrying of Tuipoluto coupled with the dazzle of former DHL Stormers player Jones outside him played a strong part in Scotland’s big win over Fiji at Murrayfield last weekend and will need to be closely watched and marked when the world champions visit the same venue on Sunday.

He did not play against Jones when the Warriors visited Durban a few weeks ago for their Vodacom United Rugby Championship clash with the Hollywoodbets Sharks, for the Scotland centre sat out that game, but Jones is a player that Sharks star Andre Esterhuizen knows well after they played together for the English club, Harlequins.

“They are obviously a great centre pair,” said Esterhuizen of the Tuipulotu/Jones midfield partnership during a break in the Bok buildup for the Murrayfield clash.

“We’ve watched many games where they have torn up defences both in the international setup and for Glasgow. They are two great players. I played with Huw for a couple of years at Harlequins so I know him quite well. Tuipulotu is also a great player. He can distribute, run it and he’s a hard ball carrier as well.”

Of course the Bok team for Sunday has yet to be announced and will only be released to the media on Thursday, so there’s no guarantee that Esterhuizen will line up for what will be his first Bok game since a red card ended his outing against Portugal in Bloemfontein in mid-July in the first five minutes.

Damian de Allende is the first choice inside centre but coach Rassie Erasmus might well feel that after being out of Bok action for several months, Esterhuizen warrants a run against the Scots - be it in the starting team and off the bench.

If he is used, he says it is a challenge he is looking forward to and will be up for.

“It’s going to be a good battle in midfield. We are really keen for that and looking forward to it,” he said before adding that he was pleased to see Jones back in the Scotland setup.

“When Huw joined us at Quins he was in between positions, but he played really, really well for us. Quins didn’t want to let him go, but eventually he decided to link up with Glasgow.”