SCRUM AHEAD
Rory: Battle of the No.9s holds key to Scotstoun crunch Lawson hit
RoRY LAWSoN can’t wait to see Ali Price and Sam Hidalgo-Clyne do battle again this afternoon during the second 1872 Cup match at Scotstoun.
Edinburgh Rugby head to Glasgow Warriors’ ground for the crucial Guinness PRO14 clash on a high, having won the first meeting of the sides 18-17 seven days ago despite playing 74 minutes with 14 men.
And with the wounded Warriors out for revenge the two exciting scrum-halves are likely to be key protagonists once again.
Glasgow’s Price, 24, has had a dream 2017 and has become one of the first names on the team sheet for club and country.
And Hidalgo-Clyne, also 24, has been a big player as Edinburgh have hit some form with nine wins in their last 10 in all competitions.
Former Scotland No.9 Lawson, below, said: “I think Ali was extremely good during the Autumn inter-nationals. He is a real livewire and has a firm grip on the Scotland jersey with Greig Laidlaw currently injured.
“His link-up with Finn Russell has come on a lot over the course of 2017 and when he plays well so do Glasgow Warriors. He very much sets the tone and tempo for them.
“We all know what Hidalgo-Clyne is capable of, but the key thing for him is to find some consistency in his game.
“He is an international quality scrum-half and if he can nail down the No.9 jersey with Edinburgh then he can push back into the Scotland reckoning.”
Lawson, the 36-year-old player turned pundit, started his pro career at Edinburgh back in 2003 before leaving to join Gloucester in 2006.
He served them and Newcastle Falcons with great distinction before retiring in 2013.
And two up-and-coming 20-year-old talents in the Edinburgh backline who have caught Lawson’s eye recently have been Darcy Graham and Blair Kinghorn.
Graham is on the bench for the Scotstoun clash with Kinghorn starting at full-back.
Lawson said: “I covered the Under-20s World Cup in Georgia in the summer and Darcy showed what a talent he had.
“Edinburgh coach Richard Cockerill speaks highly of him and he is clearly a lad who works hard on his game and is thriving in the pro environment.
“Kinghorn is a similar age and is someone who has had a very good start to his career. With that, of course, comes expectation.
“He is a guy who previously made mistakes but over time he is working those out of his game while keeping the flair parts in.
“He is a big man, a rangy runner and is most certainly a talented player with a lot of ability.”
Ahead of the match Edinburgh have had a bit of a prop crisis. Loosehead Rory Sutherland is injured and joins Al Dickinson, Allan Dell and Darryl Marfo on the sidelines while frontline tightheads WP Nel and the suspended Simon Berghan will also be seated in the Scotstoun stands.
Murray McCallum and Matt Shields start for the visitors but Lawson has been impressed by the rise of the Warriors’ first-choice props Jamie Bhatti and Zander Fagerson – and thinks they can help drive their side to success.
On the two Scotland caps, Lawson said: “Both Bhatti and Zander have had to learn the hard way, at the coal face, at the top level of the game and they just keep getting better.
“The positions they play in are technical and that requires a lot of hard work at training to get things right.
“However, they seem like a couple of young guys who take in all the information given to them and then just get their heads down and get on with it.
“In any derby game scrum time will definitely play its part and they will both be wanting to get their team on the
front foot.”
The positions they play in are technical and that needs a lot of hard work to get it right RORY LAWSON