Alarm bells for Boks as Scotland peak

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Scotland are peaking at the right time which is a major alarm bell for their heavyweight World Cup pool stage contenders, Ireland and South Africa.

Scotland backed up last weekend's 25-21 victory over France in Murrayfield with another impressive performance on Saturday. '

While last weekend's display may not have raised a few eyebrows, Saturday's narrow 27-30 defeat against a star-studded Les Blues side at  Saint-Etienne has certainly placed them on the list of World Cup wild cards.

France fielded an almost full-strength team with Romain Ntamack partnering captain Antoine Dupont at halfback, while Charles Ollivon donned the No.8 jersey.

However, Scotland, captained by Finn Russell and featuring  South Africans Duhan van der Merwe, Kyle Steyn, WP Nel and Pierre Schoeman, were incredible.

Trialling 10-27 early in the second half, Gregor Townsend's men staged a fightback and tries from Van der Merwe, Rory Darge and Steyn levelled the scores with less than 10 minutes on the clock.

"It's a very weird one,"  Scotland wing Steyn said in the wake of the match.

"I do feel positive about the fact that we came here [ at Saint-Etienne] and competed against a really good French team until the last minute.

"But at the same time gutted that we couldn't get it over the line."

Many pundits have already predicted a group exit for the Scotts, however, Steyn revealed the performance gives them confidence and belief ahead of the World Cup.

"The start of the second half was a little tricky, letting in two soft tries, but the boys stuck together and fought back.

"We got ourselves back into the game by playing a brand of rugby that we really proud of.

"I think there a lot to take from that and a lot of belief heading into the World Cup."

Scotland have one warm-up game against Georgia at Murrayfield before their open their World Cup campaign against the Springboks on September 10 at Stade Velodrome in Marseille.