FOR an 18-year period between 1139 and 1157, Newcastle was effectively part of Scotland. For 80 emotionally-charged minutes this evening, it will feel that way again.

It might not be a rampaging army that has been pouring across Hadrian’s Wall in the last 24 hours, but a conservative estimate suggests that more than 30,000 Scottish supporters will be packed into St James’ Park as the North-East finally gets the chance to join the Rugby World Cup circus.

The stakes could hardly be higher. Scotland must win either tonight’s game with South Africa or next weekend’s showdown with Samoa to reach the World Cup quarter-finals. The Springboks, still smarting from their opening-game humiliation to Japan, know defeat today will almost certainly mean them failing to get out of the group stage for the first time in their history.

It is a seismic encounter, representing the tournament’s first collision of north and south a matter of hours before England take on Australia in their own must-win clash at Twickenham.

Having lost to the Springboks on 20 of their previous 25 meetings, Scotland will start as underdogs. In terms of winning the battle for crowd support, though, their supremacy will not be in doubt.

“With it being so close to Scotland, I think the support is going to be incredible,” said winger Tim Visser. “We’re expecting a lot of Scots here to cheer us on and that’ll be great.

“It always helps to have that kind of support, especially through the hard times in the second half of games. We’re looking forward to performing here in Newcastle. It’s a great place for me personally, and we can’t wait to play.”

Visser’s relationship with Newcastle is especially strong, and goes back to the time when he arrived in the city as a teenager, having moved from his native Amsterdam.

He was a student at both Barnard Castle School and Northumbria University, and joined Newcastle Falcons’ academy in the hope of following in the footsteps of his father, Marc, who was a 67-time Dutch international.

Loan spells at Tynedale and Darlington Mowden Park followed, before Visser finally established himself in the Falcons first team, going on to make 57 appearances for the Kingston Park club. He has subsequently played for Edinburgh and Harlequins, but has never lost his affinity for the North-East.

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“It’s been great to come back to where it all started,” said Visser, who qualified to play for Scotland on residence grounds in 2012. “It’s been kind of nostalgic to be back in Jesmond, where I was as a student back in the day. We’ve had some great facilities at RGS (Royal Grammar School), which is just around the corner, and just being around the area has been really good for the mood.

“Everyone’s been really enjoying themselves here, and we’ve been able to train really well. Personally, I’m delighted to be back. I’ve never played at this ground, but it’s a fantastic stadium that I know well. We’re delighted to have a game here.”

Visser’s links to Newcastle do not end there, as he is close friends with Newcastle United goalkeeper and fellow Dutchman Tim Krul.

The pair are in regular contact, and while Krul will be busy himself this afternoon playing for the Magpies at Manchester City, Visser will call him for a two-way debrief later this evening.

“To be completely honest, I’m not a massive football fan and he’s not a massive rugby fan either,” he said. “That doesn’t really help in terms of watching each other, but we’re in touch constantly. We’ve followed each other’s careers closely and we’re still very good friends.”

Krul’s recent St James’ Park experiences have not been too positive, and Scotland boss Vern Cotter’s selection for tonight’s game can be interpreted as an admission that he does not expect his side to be piling further misery on the South Africans.

Mindful of next weekend’s game with Samoa, and wrestling with the problems posed by a six-day turnaround from Sunday’s 39-16 win over the United States, Cotter has made ten changes, the majority of which were unenforced.

Gordon Reid, Richie Vernon and Blair Cowan all get their first taste of World Cup rugby, while Duncan Weir and Fraser Brown will be making their first starts, but Visser bristled at the merest suggestion of today’s side being a ‘second string’.

“I don’t think that’s the case at all,” said the wide man, who started and scored in the win over USA. “Like the coaches have said, we’ve had ten days for our first three games and a squad of 31 players has been selected to deal with that and do the job.

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“We’re expecting everyone within that squad to perform, and any game has a combination of different players to create a result. We’ll be going out to win the game, there’s no doubt about that.

“In a World Cup, you never go out half-hearted just trying to get through to the next game. We need to win everything and to qualify for a quarter-final place would be brilliant. That’s the aim, and we want to win the game. I don’t think any coach would put out a second-string squad, as has been said, to try to do that against South Africa.”