Georgia on McInally’s mind...
Former Scotland skip warns 6N ‘warm-up’ won’t be easy
STUART McINALLY led Scotland to a comfortable win against Georgia last year, but believes there is no way the visitors should be taken lightly when they come to BT Murrayfield in October.
The Georgians actually lost both at home and away to Gregor Townsend’s side in the build-up to the Rugby World Cup, with Edinburgh hooker McInally captaining Scotland to a 44-10 victory in Tbilisi before sitting out the 36-9 return in his home city. This time round they are scheduled to play at the national stadium just a week before Scotland’s rescheduled Six Nations Championship match against Wales, and McInally is certain they will present his team with a tough physical challenge.
“That’s going to be an exciting game,” the hooker said of the Georgia fixture, which has yet to be officially announced by the Six Nations. “I wouldn’t describe it as a warm-up game, because I think that would be doing Georgia a bit of a discredit. I think they’re an excellent team – I played against them quite recently. It will be good to not have Wales as our first game, because that is such an important game for us.”
According to the draft schedule for the autumn window, a rest weekend will follow the Wales match before Scotland go into their Eight Nations pools games against Italy, France and Japan. Fiji will be the newcomers in the other pool, which will also include England, Ireland and Wales. With a play-off match to follow for each team, the autumn calendar will look refreshingly different according to McInally.
“I think it looks really exciting,” he continued. “We often get the chance to play teams from around the globe around autumn time, so it’s good to welcome Japan and Fiji. It’s just something different, and different is often quite exciting. It’s going to be busy, there will be a lot of games in a short space of time, I’m sure it will be good to be involved in that.
“I’ve always really enjoyed playing in the Autumn Tests and the chance to play teams like New Zealand, Australia, teams you normally never get the chance to play unless you’re lucky enough to tour there. But at the same time, if there’s a competitive side to a tournament, that’s also really exciting.”
In recent seasons some members of the Scotland squad have been subject to a protocol which sees them rested after playing four consecutive games, whether for country or pro team. That could be altered in the coming months given the crowded calendar from late August onwards, and although McInally is well aware of the importance of player welfare, he suggested that the aftermath of the long lockdown lay-off could be the right time for him and his colleagues to take on a more onerous schedule.
“I know it’s a big topic and player welfare is very important, but the coaches of these squads have to manage the players. If there are, say, 26 games in 27 weeks, if that’s what the season’s going to look like, the players can’t play all of them.
“This is where coaches will have to manage people individually. Players will break down if you play them too much. At the same time our jobs rely on the revenue coming in and because of the coronavirus we have had a brilliant three months off, something we haven’t had before.
“Maybe it’s time to knuckle down and we find ourselves playing a bit more this year. I can see both sides. As a player the last thing you want to do is burn yourself out and find yourself constantly playing at 60/70 per cent. You risk injuries more.
“At Edinburgh we do feel the conversations are there to give yourself a bit more ownership. If you feel a bit roughed up you can speak up, and we have a good strength-and-conditioning team that look after you so well. It has happened in the past – a player plays four games in a row then they get a couple of days off during the week. You just have to hope that continues, as it sounds like it will be a real busy year.”
In the more immediate feature, McInally and his Edinburgh team-mates are counting down eagerly to the return of competitive rugby next month when they play Glasgow Warriors twice in the space of seven days. Home advantage has often been a strong factor in the outcome of the inter-city games, but although both matches will be at Murrayfield, the forward believes the lack of a large crowd will have an impact.
“It’s definitely a huge advantage when we get 25,000 in at Christmas. Those are the games when you feed off the noise and the emotion of the crowd. I love playing in those games. It will be different because there won’t be any fans.
“We love playing at Murrayfield, but it’s probably not as big an advantage if it does go ahead behind closed doors. It’s a good pitch and it’s just 15 against 15.”