PUTTING IN A SHIFT
“You would earn a lot of money if you knew that answer,” was Scotland skills coach Mike Blair’s response this week when asked why it is harder to win games away from home.
The question particularly applies to the Scotland rugby team and hooker Stuart Mcinally would settle for Six Nations points over pots of cash if he and the squad can find a solution to their welldocumented woes on the road in the past two decades.
For his part, Mcinally has his own approach when it comes to big internationals away from the comforts of BT Murrayfield, to which he has become so accustomed for both club and country.
“I always find it amazing now that I’m involved in playing for Scotland how you don’t even notice the crowd,” said the Edinburgh player. “I don’t find it too different playing for Scotland than playing for Edinburgh. You’re so focused on what you need to do, as soon as you start letting your eyes wander towards anything external you hamper yourself.
“I always remember watching Scotland and thinking ‘it’s a big lineout, he must be really nervous throwing it’. Then, when you’re there, you don’t even think twice about it, it’s just the way it is. So, the stadium itself won’t be any external factor I don’t imagine.”
Mcinally played in Scotland’s game at the Aviva Stadium two years ago and described it as a “different shaped” ground, with its swooping depopulated area behind one goal and vast banks along the touchlines containing most of its 51,700 capacity.
Last week, Mcinally’s club coach, the former England hooker Richard Cockerill, described him as the form No 2 in the competition and one of the best in the world at present. The 27-year-old has carried his excellent form for Edinburgh and Scotland in November into the Six Nations and built further on it with some dynamic displays in the past two games.
So much so that he has become that rare breed in the
“The feedback from the coaches is that, if I am playing well, I will stay on. I really want to stick with that and put my best stuff out there”
STUART MCINALLY