Finn Russell backs Scotland to bounce back quickly after South Africa defeat at Rugby World Cup

Finn Russell admitted his frustration after Scotland’s 18- defeat to South Africa but backed the team to bounce back quickly.

Scotland endured a tough opening game at the Rugby World Cup, with the defending champions living up to their billing as an elite side.

Russell and his teammates couldn’t find a way to put the Springboks on the back foot and he conceded that there were things to work on for the team ahead of what are now crucial pool games against Tonga and Romania next.

“It was potentially going to be the situation that we were in after the first game,” he said. “Ideally it wouldn’t have been, but now we’re in this situation we just need to pick ourselves back up and go.

“We’ve got Tonga and then Romania. So we go into these games as best prepared as we can and looking to play as best we can.

“I think tonight we had a ten-minute period that we let South Africa get two tries, so probably having a chat between us the players and how we can get better after that second half and coming out firing straight away so that doesn’t happen again.”

“As frustrated as we are there’s a lot to work on and we’ve still got everything to play for.”

After a bruising encounter with a side famed for their strength and physicality, Russell said that the team would benefit from some down time but he is full of belief that Scotland can still show their best rugby in the games to come.

“We’ve got two weeks now,” he said. “So we’ll have the next few days just getting away from rugby.

“That was very physically demanding and mentally as well.

“I think the next few days we’ll get away from rugby. We will refresh ourselves and come back on Thursday or Friday or whenever it is and start preparing for Tonga.

“That’s a massive game for us.

“You know, we’ve got everything to play for now and to an extent, nothing to lose. As tough as it is to take, in sport you’ve got to bounce back as quickly as you can and I think the boys will do that.”