Jaco’s jumbled emotions after debut ends in defeat
JACO VAN DER WALT admitted he was left with a mixture of emotions after his first start for Scotland ended in defeat in Dublin.
The South African-born fly-half was thrown in at the deep end for his first cap, but was one of Scotland’s better performers against the Irish.
He kicked 11 of his team’s 16 points and gave a good account of himself, despite only having two training sessions with his new team-mates heading into the match.
It has been a hectic period for the 26-year-old Edinburgh star, who got married in South Africa last month before then having to quarantine upon his arrival back in Scotland.
But he admitted that, despite doing well on a personal level, the defeat in the final Autumn Nations Cup fixture left him bittersweet feeling.
‘Yeah, obviously we’re disappointed not to win the game,’ said Van der Walt. ‘But it was great to get my first cap against Ireland and it was great to get the opportunity this week to start the match.
‘So I’m very humble for this opportunity to play alongside a great bunch of boys and I learned a lot.
‘It was a great opportunity for me. I feel the boys helped me a lot — boys playing with 50 caps, Hoggy 80 caps — so they taught me a lot and kept me calm.
‘It was great to get that backing from all the boys and I felt confident coming into this game, obviously nervous but it was good nervous.’
Asked where he felt that game had slipped away from Scotland, Van der Walt replied: ‘Obviously it was conceding too many penalties.
‘After a while, we were 10 points down and we just should have kept the ball. I think our discipline struggled today but when we kept the ball in hand, we did well.’
Van der Walt will now be looking to get a good run of games under his belt for Edinburgh over the festive period, with a view to featuring for Scotland in the Six Nations.
With both Finn Russell and Adam Hastings out injured at the moment, he surely has every chance of featuring in the squad if not the starting XV.
‘Finn is one of the best 10s in the world,’ acknowledged Van der Walt. ‘For me, it’s just about learning from them and training with them, and we can feed off each other.
‘I’m happy whenever they want to play me.
‘If I get the opportunity, I just need to play well again but for me it’s just a learning curve.’