A NATION READY TO ROAR!
Fans are finally back as Scotland get set to rock Murrayfield
It’s been a long wait — 602 days, to be exact — but scotland fans will finally get the chance to cheer on their team inside Bt Murrayfield today as tonga kick off the Autumn Nations series.
It will be a much lower-key fixture against the south sea Islanders than the last time they played in front of a home crowd before the pandemic, but that doesn’t matter. the fans are back and that is a good enough reason to celebrate.
scotland’s last home outing in front of the support was on March 8, 2020 when a capacity 67,400 crowd turned up to witness a thrilling 28-17 six Nations win over France.
Now that restrictions have been eased, more than 30,000 are expected to attend against tonga.
that relatively low crowd is an indication of the quality of the opposition, as the subsequent matches against Australia, south Africa and Japan are all sell-outs.
scotland — who will give new caps to eight players, four from the start and four off the bench — may be missing exiles such as captain stuart Hogg of Exeter Chiefs and Finn Russell of Racing 92 as the game falls outside the official international window but tonga have suffered even more.
they have struggled to put together a squad due to injuries and call-offs. their pack looks relatively weak and inexperienced, with only 41 test caps among them, which is exactly the same number as flanker Hamish Watson has on his own for scotland.
tonga’s head coach toutai Kefu did not travel as he was stabbed when a gang broke into his home in Brisbane two months ago. Only seven hours of surgery saved his life after he suffered a sliced liver, heavy bleeding and seven broken ribs. His wife Rachel was hit so hard with a machete that the wound cut down to the bone, severed her tendons and nerves and almost took her arm off.
Both are, thankfully, on the mend and will watch the match on tV in Australia, while his assistant Grant Doorey will be in charge at Murrayfield. the alleged culprits have since been caught and are awaiting a court date.
scotland go into the game with co-captains — scrum-half Ali Price and flanker Jamie Ritchie — for the first time.
Price’s confidence should be high after starring for the British and Irish Lions on their tour to south Africa. Ritchie would have been captain on scotland’s summer tour of Romania and Georgia if it hadn’t been called off due to Covid.
scotland head coach Gregor townsend said he wanted a forward and a back to lead the national team today so the responsibility is shared, but just what he hopes to gain from the experiment remains to be seen as regular skipper Hogg will be back for the match against Australia a week tomorrow.
so how will the co-captaincy work? Do Ritchie and Price both lead the team out holding hands? Who talks to the ref? Who makes the big calls? Who gives the team talk?
At their first co-captaincy Press conference, both men sounded comfortable and seemed to have things worked out.
‘We did talk about whether we go out together at the start but instead decided to flip a coin to see who went out first,’ said Ritchie. ‘Who won? You’ll have to wait and see.
‘As for the calls, even when Hoggy is captain there is a discussion around how we are feeling in the game. What we think is relevant at the time. If we are camped in their half, maybe we want to stay down there or if we feel we need to come away with some points. that will be the decision and this time we will probably share making it.
‘the coach was due to have a meeting with the officials and the ref will be made aware of the situation that it is co-captains with us. A lot of teams round the world now have co-captains. It is about sharing the load.
‘If one of us has a strong feeling on something, we can talk to the ref about it. For us, it is about finding that balance around when to speak, how to speak, stuff like that. If the ref just wants to speak to one of us, who does it? Probably who is the least tired. Probably Ali.’
Price made clear it would be a case of two separate team talks, aiming his at the backs and Ritchie the forwards.
‘We cover forwards and backs, attack and defence,’ said the scrum-half. ‘It won’t be information overload. We have discussed what needs to be said and when.’
sharing the captaincy is still a big honour for both men, who named the players whose leadership skills they have learned from during their careers.
‘For me, it is two of the more recent captains I’ve been under, because of the influence they’ve had on the group on and off the field,’ said Price. ‘Coming into this environment, Greig Laidlaw was the captain and had been for a while, and the respect the group had for him and the calmness with which he went about his work really struck me. He was the goal-kicker and took on a lot of responsibility, and I really admired that.
‘At Glasgow, Fraser Brown and Ryan Wilson have been captains for the last couple of seasons, but Ryan off the field is excellent in terms of making sure that it is more than just a 23-man game at the weekend — thinking about families, thinking about the group as a whole, guys’ wellbeing, picking up guys who are not selected, praising their performances in training, things like that.’
For Ritchie, it is stuart McInally, who has captained him at both Edinburgh and scotland.
‘stuart is somebody I have looked up to as a leader,’ he said. ‘thinking further back to when I first came into Edinburgh, the way Roddy Grant was around the group and how respected he was was huge.’