WE’RE JUST THREE days out from kick-off at the Stade de France and closer still to Ireland and Scotland naming their teams for Saturday’s pivotal World Cup Pool B encounter.
Naturally, the upcoming game in Paris topped the agenda on Wednesday’s Rugby Weekly Extra podcast which is available exclusively for The 42 subscribers.
Rugby author, broadcaster, and chief sportswriter with BBC Scotland, Tom English, joined our own Murray Kinsella and Gavan Casey for Wednesday’s preview and relayed the Scottish perspective on what is, plainly, a must-win game for Gregor Townsend’s side.
And English believes that whereas Ireland would have for three years viewed their pool game with South Africa as ‘the big one’, Scotland will have been building more so towards their final pool game with a more familiar foe since the draw was made in December 2020 — which now takes on even further significance.
“I would imagine that Townsend has a few things up his sleeve that he’s held back for this game,” said English. “I’m getting the growing feeling that he’s going to change the team around a little bit.
“It’s all on this, right? The words that the players are using: ‘this is our World Cup final’ — Darcy Graham. ‘Do-or-die.’ All of this stuff; they’re laying it all on the line here. They’re not hiding from it.
“Pierre Schoeman yesterday got quite emotional when he was talking about it: the opportunity, where he’s come from, the way he’s been accepted by Scottish people in Edinburgh where he lives.
“There’s a huge amount of emotion. Ali Price was talking the other day, he was quite emotional.
They know that this is it. And for quite a few of them — and it’s the same with the Irish boys — this could be it for their World Cup [careers]. Like, Finn Russell will be 35 by the time the next World Cup comes around. Grant Gilchrist, Richie Gray… If this goes wrong on Saturday, a lot of them will never see another World Cup.
As for why he expects Townsend to make changes to his then-strongest Scottish side which fell to South Africa in their pool opener, English pointed towards media pairings earlier in the week and, more pertinently, Ireland’s 22-7 defeat of the Scots during this year’s Six Nations.
The nature with which Scotland faded in the second half of that contest, English argued, might convince Townsend to shuffle his back row and opt for a 6-2 split on his bench, the latter of which worked to significant effect during the Scots’ Six Nations trip to Paris earlier this year.
“The other day Finn Russell and Ali Price were put up together. Maybe we’re reading the tea leaves too much here! But he (Townsend) is a big fan of Ali Price. Ben White — who may still start the game — came into the World Cup as the no.1 scrum-half. He’s been okay but not great.
“The back row, I find interesting: Jamie Richie will start, whether it’s at six or seven. And I know it was against Romania, but Hamish Watson looked very strong, very powerful. Will he come in instead of [Rory] Darge?
“Could it be [Matt] Fagerson six, Richie seven, [Jack] Dempsey eight? Or could it be Richie six, Watson seven, Dempsey eight? I’d say that’s a conversation that they’re having.
“And it’s about what’s coming off the bench as well, because you saw it in the Six Nations game: first half, Scotland very competitive but as the changes started to get made, Ireland started to turn the screw.
“Will he go 6-2 on the bench, to have an extra, big ball-carrier to come on? I wouldn’t be surprised if he did it. He did it against France in the Six Nations and Scotland put in a powerful performance. They lost but they played bloody well that day.”
Kinsella agreed with English’s sentiment, and particularly with the prospective inclusion of Hamish Watson “whose bally-carrying would be really useful” against Ireland.
“This Scottish team uses Duhan van der Merwe as a primary carrier off set-piece but it’s getting that consistent gain-line where there are back-to-back positive carries that they can sometimes struggle with,” The 42 journalist added.
“I actually think one of the ways that Scotland have improved is around that physicality. The whole pack has elevated its physicality. Watching back the Springboks match, there are times when they’re making bone-shuddering tackles on big South African carriers. But then, early in the second half, the ‘Boks go to the next level in terms of physicality and Pieter Steph du Toit just batters his way through a couple of Scots to score with a latch from two players around him.
“So, I think Scotland have improved their physicality but that’s probably one area where Ireland still think, ‘They’ll struggle to match us if we’re at our best. We’ve got one of the best — if not the best — packs in the world. We’ve got powerful, potent units across that eight and across the bench.’”
