Rugby news: Scotland 'don't fear Boks', Edinburgh land duo, Sexton opens up on disciplinary process

Grant Gilchrist during a Famous Grouse Nations Series match between Scotland and Georgia.

We take a look at some of the main rugby stories on Monday.

Scotland don’t fear Boks after display against New Zealand

Bullish Grant Gilchrist is adamant Scotland remain unfazed by South Africa’s blistering form in the lead-up to their World Cup showdown in Marseille a week on Sunday. While the Scots have enjoyed an encouraging summer campaign, the Boks have been busy inflicting record defeats on both Wales (52-16) and New Zealand (35-7) over the past two weekends to climb to second in the world rankings. The Scotland squad watched South Africa’s demolition of the All Blacks together in their hotel on Friday, but lock Gilchrist insists it has not caused any heightened trepidation within the dressing room.

“It doesn’t change our mindset,” he told the PA news agency. “We’ve known all along that South Africa can peak at a World Cup, they’re world champions for a reason. We always knew the size of the challenge that was going to face us. Other people might say this and that, but we were expecting to play the best version of the Springboks, and we’re going to relish that opportunity. It’s even more exciting when you see the way they played against the All Blacks. They’re one of the top sides in the world and we have to go out and impose our game on them.

"If you don’t feel excited about playing South Africa at a World Cup when they’re in the form they’re in, then you’re in the wrong changing room. We’re going to embrace that. We know we’ll be massive underdogs but we’ll be going into that game having prepared really well and we certainly believe if we can get our best rugby on the pitch for 80 minutes we can cause them a lot of problems.”

Edinburgh sign up duo

Edinburgh Rugby have added stand-off Tim Swiel and back-row Mitch Eadie to their squad on short-term deals. Swiel, 30, has played at Western Province, The Sharks, Harlequins, Newcastle Falcons and DHL Stormers, while Eadie, 31, has starred for both Bristol and Northampton Saints in the English Premiership.

Edinburgh senior coach Sean Everitt said: “We’re delighted to welcome both Tim [Swiel] and Mitch [Eadie] to Edinburgh Rugby. It’s excellent they’ve been able to get started straight away and I’ve got no doubt they’ll hit the ground running as we continue to build towards the new season. Both players bring an excellent level of professionalism and experience to the squad having been involved in pro rugby for a long time, and they’ll both provide competition in two key positional groups. I worked with Tim at The Sharks when he first broke into their Currie Cup squad. He’s a really clever player who can help push on a fellow ten, Charlie Savala – a young guy who has also impressed us during this pre-season period.

"Mitch [Eadie] played for a long time at Bristol and also represented Scotland U20 in his younger years. He’s a battle-hardened back-row who will bring plenty of grunt, but also some street smarts to our young back-row group. With two players heading to the Rugby World Cup in their respective positions, it was vital that we were able to bring in guys to compete at the start of the season. We’re really excited to see how both players make their mark in the coming weeks.”

Farrell says he sought to stop Earls from retiring last year

Ireland boss Andy Farrell has revealed he persuaded World Cup-bound wing Keith Earls not to retire. Munster veteran Earls is preparing for his fourth trip to rugby’s leading tournament after being named in Ireland’s 33-man squad for France ahead of Ulster’s Jacob Stockdale. The 35-year-old celebrated his 100th cap by coming off the bench to claim his 36th Test try in the 29-10 Dublin win over England earlier this month. Earls wrote in his 2021 autobiography that he came close to calling it a day with immediate effect the previous year amid breathing difficulties caused by restricted lung capacity. According to Farrell, Ireland’s second-highest try scorer, behind Brian O’Driscoll, was again considering hanging up his boots last year.

Asked which of his squad members made up the most ground to secure a place on the plane, the head coach name checked the likes of tournament debutants Jack Crowley and Joe McCarthy before mentioning Earls. “I had a conversation 18 months ago to try to stop him from retiring,” said Farrell. “He’s certainly come through the other side. He’s been outstanding over the last nine weeks as regards giving to the squad his whole self, his experience but at the same time being as fit and excited as I’ve ever seen him.”

Earls went more than a year without international action following Ireland’s 2022 tour success in New Zealand amid injury problems before lining up against Italy at the start of the month. He withdrew ahead of Saturday evening’s 17-13 warm-up win over Samoa in Bayonne due to a “niggle” but is now preparing for Ireland’s World Cup opener against Romania on September 9.

Ireland’s Sexton admits disciplinary process took a toll on his family

Johnny Sexton admits the protracted disciplinary process which threatened to ruin his Rugby World Cup dream took a toll on his family but insists he is “not trying to play the victim”. Ireland’s captain is unsure why he endured such a lengthy wait to discover his fate for “confrontational and aggressive” behaviour towards referee Jaco Peyper. Almost two months passed between the fly-half’s heated exchange with the South African match official following Leinster’s 27-26 Heineken Champions Cup final loss to La Rochelle on May 20 and him eventually being hit with a three-match ban. Sexton consequently sat out World Cup warm-up matches against Italy, England and Samoa but is available to start Ireland’s tournament opener against Romania in Bordeaux on September 9. In the prolonged period when his punishment remained unclear, the 38-year-old, who is set to retire following the competition in France, faced intense speculation and public scrutiny amid calls for a substantial suspension.

“I’ve never seen another process last eight weeks or seven weeks, whatever it was,” said Sexton, who confronted Peyper on the Aviva Stadium pitch, having watched his province’s agonising defeat from the stands due to injury. “It was incredibly frustrating not knowing what was going to happen. I’m not sure why it took so long, but that’s the way it was handled. I think when it affects your family you obviously go, ‘well, why are you upset?’ and (they reply) ‘this happened, this happened, this happened, this happened. Five weeks later, this is still happening’. Of course (you are aware of public commentary), but I’m not trying to play the victim. I made a mistake and I had to put up with what I had to put up with for seven weeks. You have to face up to your actions and that’s what I did.”