Fitzy: Scots in fine fettle for World Cup
RUGBY
New Zealand rugby great Sean Fitzpatrick believes the All Blacks are in ‘‘pretty good shape’’ for their defence of the World Cup but feels Scotland are emerging as a genuine threat for the next tournament in Japan in 2019.
Fitzpatrick felt the cross-hemisphere series in Europe had offered some valuable insights into international rugby’s state of play midway through the World Cup cycle when teams were looking to expand their playing squads and search for fresh talent.
Fitzpatrick liked the way All Blacks coach Steve Hansen continued to unearth players worthy of the jersey and was managing to get the best out of established stars like Beauden Barrett.
‘‘I think the All Blacks are in pretty good shape,’’ Fitzpatrick said as he attended a function in St Andrews Scotland for Sport at the Service of Humanity, a new charitable movement launched by Pope Francis last year aimed at promoting the positive value of all faiths and sports.
‘‘The last 12 months they’ve lost three games which is pretty unusual for us. But I think they’ll be pretty happy in terms of the calibre of player that wasn’t involved in the autumn and during the Rugby Championship,’’ Fitzpatrick said.
‘‘We had two young props who have now had real game time, Damien McKenzie’s come in and impressed, Codie Taylor’s played a lot of rugby at hooker this year.
‘‘Beauden Barrett won world player of the year and probably didn’t play as well as he did last year. But if you had to select one player, I still think he was still ahead.
‘‘Stuart Hogg is a fine player and Owen Farrell had an outstanding year, he’s an influential player. But if you were honest and knocking down any bias and were looking for one player who had been the best, you’d probably pick Beauden Barrett.’’
Fitzpatrick admitted Scotland’s rise had caught him by surprise but they should now be considered a significant threat to any team.
‘‘I was asked before the autumn internationals what I thought were the major threats to the All Blacks for the World Cup in 2019, and I said it would come from the north, but I thought Ireland and England would be the chief ones,’’ Fitzpatrick said.
‘‘I didn’t really expect Scotland to come on like they did, they played superbly and it was a great test match at Murrayfield two weeks ago.
‘‘They played well against the All Blacks but the big challenge for them was whether they could play well the next week, properly kick on, and they did against Australia. It shows they’re definitely going in the right direction.’’
Fitzpatrick put that down to Scotland’s clever investment in coaching talent and a willingness to expand their attacking game under Gregor Townsend.
‘‘What we see is the good coaches are not surprisingly producing the best teams. Gregor took over a very good team from Vern Cotter, but I think he’s lifted the level further in terms of their commitment, just the clear enthusiasm the team have to play the game.
‘‘We saw that against Samoa, they scored a lot of tries but also leaked a lot of tries, and defence is mostly an attitude thing. But they’ve sorted that out now.’’