Prize guy Watson worthy of Lions call

EDINBURGH head coach Richard Cockerill insists Hamish Watson could not have done any more to nail down a British and Irish Lions place.

The Scotland flanker was named Guinness Six Nations Player of the Tournament yesterday — and Cockerill expects him to get the call on May 6 when Warren Gatland picks his squad to take on the Springboks this summer.

Watson beat off competition from Welsh title-winning pair Louis Rees-Zammit and Taulupe Faletau to land the prize.

Ireland duo Tadhg Beirne and Robbie Henshaw, plus France’s star scrum-half and last year’s winner, Antoine Dupont, were also in the running in the public vote.

‘Hopefully Hamish has put himself in a very strong position to be part of that selection conversation,’ said Cockerill. ‘He can’t have done any more to put himself in the picture.

‘He’s been consistently good and has

probably been Scotland’s best player the whole way through.

‘We’re delighted for him. We’ve got the player of the tournament playing for Edinburgh Rugby, which is a credit to him and the club.

‘No one would be surprised if he gets selected for the Lions. However, there are some other very good players from the other countries. But he could not have done any more than he has, so let’s keep our fingers crossed.’

Watson becomes the second Scot to win the award following Stuart Hogg’s successes in 2016 and 2017.

The Scotland No7 was imperious as Gregor Townsend’s team bookended their campaign with historic wins in London and Paris — their first victories away to England and Les Bleus since 1983 and 1999 respectively.

Watson was also named man of the match after scoring his fifth Test try in a recordbreaking win against Italy at Murrayfield.

He was an all-action performer in the back-row, missing just 14 minutes over the course of five matches. He carried 67 times for 321 metres and successfully made every single tackle of his 55 in defence.

After securing 35 per cent of the vote to take the award, he said: ‘I’m very surprised as obviously loads of top players were up for the award.

‘Full credit to the whole Scotland team because, without them, boys like me can’t win these personal accolades. We really believe we can achieve things in the next few years.’