Darge: We can still go on charge
SCOTLAND new boy Rory Darge reckons it is not all doom and gloom for Gregor Townsend’s men despite last weekend’s collapse in Cardiff.
Flanker Darge made his debut off the bench in the 20-17 defeat to Wales that knocked the stuffing out of the Scots after their Calcutta Cup triumph.
And things are going to get a whole lot tougher for Scotland when Antoine Dupont’s France arrive in Edinburgh on Saturday.
But Darge insists Scotland are not a million miles away in the Six Nations and could easily be two from two.
The 21-year-old said: “It was massively disappointing that we lost to Wales. But if you try and put it in perspective, we’ve won a really big game against England.
‘We’ve then lost one other game by a really small margin where we were disappointed with the performance and the result.
‘But we’ve still got three huge games left. We have to pick ourselves up. I’ve watched the Wales game back. At this level, it’s about small moments and what impact they can have, the margins that it comes down to.
“We know what France will bring. Every moment is going to be massively important against them.”
Scrum-half Dupont, the World Player of the Year, and fly-half Romain Ntamack have pulled the strings as France crushed Italy and got past Ireland, who host Italy on Sunday, 30-24 in the tournament’s best game so far.
The Scottish back row will have their work cut out containing the Toulouse pair, who helped their club to last year’s Champions Cup title, and some massive French forwards.
Darge added: “You have to try your hardest to see what foot they kick off and how they kick, and try to get into them like that.
“But I don’t think anyone underestimates what they bring.”