McInally’s actions to speak far louder than his words as captain
Less is more for new scotland captain stuart McInally. He won’t be shouting the odds at his team-mates or making Churchillian speeches before kick-off in the matches against Canada, UsA and Argentina next month.
That style of captaincy never made any impact on him and he isn’t about to inflict it on the scotland players on their three-match summer tour.
‘I will try to do as little as possible,’ said McInally.
‘Talking is good but it is more about what you do on the pitch. I never really remember what people say in these situations.
‘After I was appointed, I was thinking back to the best captains I worked under like John Barclay. It is always the guys who played best rather than those who talked the most who made the biggest impression on me.’
McInally insisted being named skipper for scotland’s summer tour is the ‘pinnacle’ of his rugby career and justified his decision to move positions from the back row to hooker five years ago.
Knowing scotland had lots of top flankers and his international hopes were limited, he moved to the front row to boost his chances.
For the first few years, he struggled behind the likes of Ross Ford and Fraser Brown but, this season, he has really come of age.
He is now far and away firstchoice scotland hooker ahead of Brown and George Turner, who are his tour back-ups.
scotland’s most-capped player Ford hasn’t even been picked.
‘Of course I had my doubts about making the positional switch to begin with,’ said the 17-times capped edinburgh man. ‘I would be lying if I said I was confident the whole time. There were periods where I wondered if I had made the right decision.
‘I just had to keep going. I knew what I wanted to get out of the switch but it wasn’t easy.
‘I am a big believer that if you keep working hard then things will come your way.
‘It took a little longer than I’d have hoped, but it’s paid off now.
‘The captaincy is a great honour and all that but, in terms of being a hooker, I am still quite young and still have a lot to learn.
‘Nowadays, I guess I have forgotten how it feels to play in the back row. It seems a long time ago now. I am a hooker and that makes the tough times learning how to scrum worth it.
‘I remember getting my face planted down in the mud back at edinburgh and getting dragged backwards. I was thinking: “What the hell have I done here?”.
‘But the way this season has gone and looking ahead to the tour has made it all worthwhile.’
McInally is under no illusions. He knows he has been chosen captain because the two main candidates, Barclay and Greig Laidlaw, are not touring.
Both were due to be rested anyway before Barclay ruptured his tendon to find himself facing six months on the sidelines.
Being third-choice captain doesn’t bother him. He knows he has got the nod ahead of other strong candidates such as Grant Gilchrist and stuart Hogg.
Certainly, as he left edinburgh Airport yesterday en route to Canada for the first tour game, no man could have been more proud.
‘For me being named captain is definitely the pinnacle,’ said the 27-year-old. ‘I didn’t think it would ever happen but the way this season has gone and the players who are not going on tour, has created an opportunity for me to do it. I am really excited about the challenge.
‘I missed out on the last summer tour through injury but, since then, things have just kept happening. I look back to a year and a bit ago and that was on the other side of the spectrum for me.’
What made the honour extra special is that it came completely out of the blue.
McInally didn’t think he was in the frame for the captaincy and was ‘confused’ when scotland boss Gregor Townsend’s name came up on his phone early one sunday morning three weeks ago.
‘I had no idea why Gregor was calling me,’ he said. ‘I saw his name pop up on the phone and was a bit confused.
‘I was a bit down that morning because the day before, we had lost to Munster in the Pro14 quarter-final, which I felt was a huge missed opportunity.
‘Then Gregor called and my mood changed right away.
‘He made it clear immediately what he was calling for, so it was nice to hear his thoughts on why he wanted to choose me as scotland captain.
‘I went and had a coffee with him in edinburgh and spoke about the tour and he gave me a bit of a heads-up on the schedule. Who was going and stuff.
‘He wanted my take on how I looked on being captain to see if that married up with what he was thinking.
‘He seemed to be fairly happy with my answers and that was it.
‘It has been a whirlwind for me in terms of not playing at all for scotland last year to playing as much as I have this year. It has been great, a big honour, and I just want to keep it going.’