THE STUFF THAT DREAMS ARE MADE OF WHITE
THE PLAYERS HAVE TO SAVOUR THIS CHANCE, THE WORLD CUP IS
IT IS eight years since I walked out into the World Cup as Scotland captain but, as it comes around again, there is almost still a palpable excitement at next weekend’s start. My first memory of the World Cup was watching the 1995 tournament and Jonah Lomu. I was 17 and just leaving Cults Academy to go to the big city of Edinburgh, having been offered a rugby scholarship at George Watson’s College.
There was no rugby then at Cults, and I played locally with Aberdeen Wanderers, but the combination of the move and the World Cup opened my eyes and I was starting to dream then of whether maybe, one day, I could play for Scotland, and maybe on that big stage.
Lomu was becoming a true global superstar at that point, a player that took rugby beyond its traditional boundaries, and who cannot remember the big man powering through English players and over Mike Catt en route to a try?
I watched South Africa win the final, without understanding the political implications of what they did to change the culture in their country, but realising that this was a special sporting occasion.
That World Cup lit the fire for me and I think for rugby, when you realise that the game during that tournament was moving on to a professional plane with Kerry Packer signing up the world’s best players, including Gavin Hastings and the Scotland team, before Rupert Murdoch intervened and cut a deal with the unions.
A career in rugby seemed a long way away to me when South Africa were celebrating their first triumph, and yet I was a professional within a couple of years, made my Scotland debut in 2000 and was fortunate enough to play on the World Cup stage twice.
If I’m honest, the memories of World Cups that I struggle to shake off are of the preparation: standing 30 feet up on shaky crates or squeezing into a cold underground sump where your chest feels like it’s caving in in the Lake District, or pedalling away on bikes inside the greenhouses at the Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh to prepare for the humidity of Townsville in Australia in 2003 — only to turn up to face Japan and find that it was unusually cold for that time of year in Queensland!
There were also the ‘runways’ as we called them in 2007, a repeated sprint test invented by our fitness coach which was just horrible. These are all a vital part of building a team, pushing through mental and physical barriers to implement solidarity and the belief that when the going gets tough you will come together and cope with anything in a World Cup.
There were some good memories, too. I remember Scott Murray standing up during a goal-setting session and saying his vision was of Bryan Redpath standing up holding the World Cup, and that was batted around the room before ‘Creamy’ (Jim Telfer) came back with “let’s just get out of the group first”.
We also had a World Cup song, with Nathan Hines playing guitar and Graeme Morrison singing — some Stereophonics rip-off — but it never made the trip with us.
In 2007, I lived very much in the here and now and if I’d known that would be my last World Cup I would have done some things differently.
The biggest thing about the World Cup is that you spend so long together and then you get into the game and they come so thick and fast that when you lose, suddenly, you are out and home so quickly. You have spent three months with an extended group, a month in camp with the final squad, and then you lose that last game and it’s a smokebomb — you are walking off the pitch gutted and then seem to wake up in your bed at home with it all gone.
It is really startling and, looking back on it, I missed a trick as captain by not having a proper round-up, pulling everyone together, thanking them and sharing that recognition of what we had all come through together.
I have spoken with Greig Laidlaw, and passed that on — to make sure you enjoy every part of these next few weeks, appreciate it and make the most of it, and have no regrets.
Make no mistake, I enjoyed leading Scotland into a World Cup. And there were some cool bits.
I was flown from Edinburgh to Paris on a private jet for the World Cup launch — the owner of Montauban had given up his plane for the World Cup organisers.
To be there with the other world captains, on that stage, wearing the Scottish thistle on my blazer, holding my chest out, and with a real belief that we were coming out of our pool and really going for it in that tournament, was a unique feeling, and memory.
I see this team as being better prepared for the World Cup than we were.
Most of our squad in 2007 came from Edinburgh, Glasgow and Borders teams that were struggling a bit.
The new caps now are also far more experienced — guys like Stuart McInally, Grant Gilchrist, John Hardie, WP Nel and Josh Strauss — and experience is vital.
In my opinion, we are too thin on the ground at openside flanker. They are looking at Ryan Wilson coming in there, but I would have preferred Blair Cowan or John Barclay to have been included because a genuine openside is invaluable to a Scottish pack.
John Hardie’s inclusion was seen as controversial over eligibility, but what constitutes Scottish these days? Hamish Watson is a cracking young flanker, born in England, Barclay was born in Hong Kong, Cowan in New Zealand and Roddy Grant, who has been great for Edinburgh, born in Botswana.
The wider chat about eligibility is for another day — I would personally like the three-year residency extended to five years — because what matters most to the players in the squad now is that Hardie is putting his body on the line for this team.
Is he going to the deep, dark places to make the difference for Scotland to win? You are found out quickly if you’re not. The people he needs to win the respect of are his teammates and I think he is doing that.
The game against France was the best yet under Vern and I can see his team emerging — a really strong defence, gnarly edge in the forwards and game-breakers in the backs. They looked like they were on the same wavelength in Paris and that was probably the first time against top opposition that they have nailed what the coaches wanted them to do.
Now it is about taking that improvement to the next level and playing their part in what I believe will be one of the most exciting World Cups to date.