Scotland Renew Rivalries With Two Southern Hemisphere Giants

 

Scotland will renew their rivalry with two leading teams from the Southern Hemisphere in their 2021 Autumn Internationals.

The fixtures see the home side take on the current world champions South Africa, Australia and a third side, which will be announced in due course.

The matches will be played at BT Murrayfield on the weekends of 6, 13 and 20 November 2021 respectively.

Scotland's previous home games at BT Murrayfield have attracted huge demand with 17 of the last 18 international matches achieving sell-out capacity crowds at the Edinburgh stadium.

Scotland will be aiming for a hat-trick of successive victories against the Wallabies, having won their last two encounters at BT Murrayfield and in Sydney, both in 2017.

Indeed, Scotland has won four of their last seven meetings against Australia, where, until their 53-24 triumph in the last match, there was never more than a single score between the sides.

Currently ranked sixth in the world, the Wallabies are coached by Dave Rennie, who formerly fulfilled the head coach role at Glasgow Warriors. Rennie is assisted by the former Scotland defence coach Matt Taylor.

It’s ten years since Scotland last downed the world’s number one ranked side, the Springboks, on home soil, though there have been some closely-contested battles both home and away in the interim.

In the last meeting in 2018, South African goal-kicking edged the match 20-26, the teams have shared the try count, two apiece, with Peter Horne and Hamish Watson touching down for Scotland.

Scotland’s 2010 win came courtesy of a monopoly points haul from stand-off Dan Parks landing six penalties and a drop-goal in Scotland’s 21-17 margin.

Scotland Head Coach, Gregor Townsend said: "The Autumn Nations Cup has been a great way for international rugby to resume in these difficult times. Fans, players and coaches will be looking forward to next year when Scotland face southern hemisphere opposition in Australia and the current world champions, South Africa at BT Murrayfield.

“The Autumn Internationals in 2021 will be another opportunity for our players to represent their country, hopefully with our fans in attendance, and provides the team with a different challenge and exciting challenge as a result."

The final 2021 Autumn Internationals opponents will be confirmed shortly.