COTTER’S MEN GIVE US A REASON TO BELIEVE
IT is here again. Nothing gets the juices flowing quite like the build-up to the first weekend of the Six Nations. It is, by some distance, the best annual rugby tournament in the world.
The Rugby Championship will argue that they have higher ranked teams and, hence, better rugby but that is only part of the whole package. What they don’t get is the travelling support and this is what makes the RBS Six Nations so special and the best.
Thousands of opposition fans will fill the host cities and stadia and create a vibrant, colourful and atmospheric backdrop to the actual rugby, and it is this combination that sets the Six Nations aside.
The percentage of the population who are rugby fans and watch rugby regularly is relatively small but this increases dramatically for the duration of the Six Nations.
Taxi drivers are a good gauge of this; for 45 weeks of the year, they mostly follow football, but over the coming weeks, when I get in a cab and they look in the rear-view mirror, they immediately analyse what is happening in the Six Nations.
My excitement levels this year are, possibly, higher than they have been for a while and this is due to a number of factors.
Firstly, Scotland have a very good set of players, maybe the best squad that we have had since we won the last Five Nations Championship in 1999. Back then, there was a very good team but not a huge amount of depth in the squad and they required a bit of luck for the key players to remain injury-free for the whole tournament.
This squad has much more strength in depth with some positions like centre and back row awash with talent and we could go down to third, fourth and fifth choice picks and still be able to have a quality player in that shirt.
We have a young squad but one that has been developing together and one that has more miles under the bonnet than the ages would suggest.
They are a very good age demographic to stay together for many years; they have developed together and look like they enjoy each other’s company on and off the pitch. It helps that the majority of the squad comes from Glasgow, who have enjoyed some real success over the years but the way that the likes of the Edinburgh players and the exiled players interact together is impressive.
There is also complete alignment between the coaching team and the players.
It took a bit of time for Vern Cotter’s message to get across but now they are all bought in, fully understand their roles and are executing things well.
There don’t seem to be any egos. In fact, the best players who, ordinarily, might have an ego are some of the most grounded and unassuming guys you will ever meet. Jonny Gray, Finn Russell and Stuart Hogg just do their job without any fuss and don’t regard themselves as anything special.
Confidence is a commodity that is hard to define at times. Different people are confident in different situations. This squad have confidence in their own ability, their fellow team-mates and the ability of the coaching team and the game plan that they are to play.
There is complete alignment which is great to see but Scotland will need to do something today that has only ever happened once in the Six Nations; win the first game.
Only in 2006 against France have we gone into the second game with the momentum and feelgood factor of winning in round one.
If we are going to do that then we are going to have to beat one of the form sides in world rugby, not just the Six Nations. Ireland beat the All Blacks in November. End of.
Any side that can do that deserves total respect and they will provide a huge test today for Scotland and will give a real gauge to how far Scotland have progressed.
Ireland will play well because they play quite a limited game-plan but one that they deliver with huge accuracy and intensity.
For Scotland to win this game, every player in a blue shirt will have to play very close to their best game, play almost error-free rugby and be able to match the intensity of Ireland.
It’s a huge ask but one that this Scotland team is capable of answering this afternoon.
“It’s great to see complete alignment in the squad