McINALLY’S A LEADER OF GREAT MEN

Hooker isn’t fazed by captaining a Scots side featuring his former skipper Barclay

THE prospect of leading Scotland with the eyes of two former skippers watching your every move at close quarters can’t be an easy one.

Yet it’s a challenge which Stuart McInally is happy to seize with two huge hands.

Having served his time under both John Barclay and Greig Laidlaw — two of the national rugby team’s most inspirational leaders of recent times — the Edinburgh hooker now finds himself vying with both for the armband at next month’s World Cup in Japan.

McInally has already shown Gregor Townsend he’s more than capable of filling the role after skippering the Scots to one of the all-time classic comebacks in the 38-38 Calcutta Cup draw at Twickenham.

Whether he’s more capable than Barclay and Laidlaw remains to be seen over the next few weeks, with Townsend considering the merits of all three in the four warm-up games against France and Georgia.

With Laidlaw rested, McInally gets his shot against Les Bleus in Nice this evening, and he insists he’s got no problems with Barclay casting a beady eye over his every decision in the heat of battle. In fact, the 29-year-old firmly believes you can never have too many leaders in a team.

‘Me and John get on very well and it’s going to be great having him on the pitch against France,’ said McInally.

‘When I got my first real involvement with Scotland, he was the captain.

‘It’s now great to be in that leadership group with him, you learn so much.

‘I’ve also got Stuart Hogg there as well and Grant Gilchrist, so it’ll be an easy job for me being captain.

‘If I do get the opportunity to do it in Japan then, wow, it would be a great honour and a really proud moment. But there are so many other great leaders in the squad who can lead this team.’

Whether they can lead them as well as McInally did against England in the Six Nations in March is open to debate.

With the Scots 31-0 behind after the Auld Enemy ran in five tries in the first half hour, the skipper refused to panic.

Leading by example, he scored a sensational try before half-time — after charging down an attempted clearance kick by Owen Farrell — and inspired his team to an unforgettable fightback.

‘It was certainly the biggest challenge I’ve had as a leader,’ recalled McInally. ‘Being under your sticks five times away from home doesn’t happen too often in an international but it happened in that first half at Twickenham.

‘I remember it was fairly calm, we were saying the right things but the frustrating thing was that it wasn’t leading to better actions.

‘England seemed to be playing so well and there seemed to be no stopping them. It was just one-way traffic until I got the try just before the break.

‘I found myself in front of Farrell and tried to get forward.

‘I was too close to him for him to kick — I don’t know why he kicked it — but I got the charge down. I was just trying to run as far as I could before I got tackled, but I got over, although it took me a while to get my breath back!

‘I remember coming in at the break and trying to get one or two points across to the players in the dressing room, about trying to pick on one thing each we would try to fix.

‘Greig Laidlaw spoke really well at halftime about our kick chase, that’s one thing we spoke about sorting, and it seemed to help a lot in the second half.

‘We went back out there and before we knew it we were under their sticks again. I was really aware of the weight of the nation and what people were feeling.

‘Watching us play badly to begin with was really hard to take but then lifting the Calcutta Cup at the end, even although it was a draw, was the proudest moment of my career.’

The captaincy aside, tonight’s game will be a crucial gauge of how individual players are shaping up as head coach Townsend prepares to name his 31-man squad.

There’s a lot of pressure to perform for those on the periphery of the cut, including centre Rory Hutchinson and second row Scott Cummings, both of whom will make debuts off the bench.

It’s also a big game for the likes of winger Byron McGuigan, fighting it out with Tommy Seymour, Darcy Graham and Blair Kinghorn for one of the four wing spots. McGuigan is currently last in the reckoning but that could change if he puts in a top-class performance in the south of France.

McInally believes most of the squad are doing their best not to dwell on whether they will be in or out.

‘I think everyone is just focusing on the game,’ he said. ‘If you look too far ahead and think about selection, that can sometimes impair you.

‘We’re looking to try out some different combinations this weekend to see what works and what doesn’t.

‘But it’s still a Test match and we’re representing the whole of Scotland, so we’ll be treating it like any other international and looking to win it.’