GIVE ME A TRY, GREGOR
Horne is eager to show his scoring prowess again
ON his last start for Scotland more than two years ago, George Horne ran in three tries in a 61-0 World Cup win over Russia.
With Gregor Townsend set to announce his team tomorrow for the final autumn series Test against Japan, the Glasgow Warriors scrum-half jokes it might be useful if someone could remind the head coach about his performance that day.
‘Maybe I should let him know that!’ he laughs. ‘You guys (the media) could tell him as well. I would love to start every game but I understand that, as a No 9, often the role is to come off the bench.
‘I want to get on and score as many tries as possible, that would be nice.’
Greig Laidlaw’s international retirement not long after that 2019 World Cup created a vacancy at scrum-half but it is Horne’s Glasgow team-mate, Ali Price, who has been the main beneficiary, excelling to the point where he earned a call-up to — and excelled with — the British & Irish Lions tour to South Africa this summer.
Horne’s prospects of ousting Price haven’t been helped by a foot injury sustained a year ago that required surgery and kept him sidelined for six months.
The 26-year-old, though, is fit again and ready to start at Murrayfield on Saturday should Townsend decide to mix things up after the gruelling encounters with Australia and South Africa.
Failing that, Horne will be primed to make an impact off the bench, a role he has become accustomed to of late for club and country.
‘You want to be starting the games but it’s not up to me at the moment,’ he shrugs. ‘Hopefully I can get a start but if I’m coming off the bench, I just want to get on there and play as well as I can.
‘It’s quite tough when you know you’re not getting much game time but you’ve still got a big role to play.
‘In the Australia game, in the last ten minutes it was just being accurate in what we were doing and closing the game out.
‘It was a slightly different scenario at the weekend (against South Africa) when we were coming from behind. That was a case of just trying to play at tempo — trying to up the speed and put them under pressure. ‘So it’s tough (as a replacement) because you don’t get as many minutes on the field but I think it’s still an important role when you’ve got to adapt to the situation in the game.’ The third scrum-half in the Scotland squad for this series is another Warrior in the form of Jamie Dobie, so there is a familiarity among the No 9s. ‘We’ve got a good relationship,’ confirms Horne (left). ‘We do a lot of work on our game together and know each other really well. ‘But we’re all still competing against each other — we’re competitive guys. ‘We all want to be starting and playing as much as possible, so yeah, it’s good in a way that we’re familiar. But everyone still wants to play.’
Japan may not enjoy the same cachet in world rugby as the Springboks or the Wallabies but memories of their performance to dispatch Scotland from the 2019 World Cup are still fresh in the minds.
Townsend’s men have given the Murrayfield crowd something to cheer about in each of the three autumn games to date and Horne says there is enough in the tank for one final push.
‘We will go into the game confident,’ he says. ‘We feel as if when we play our best rugby we can match any team in the world. But that doesn’t mean we are underestimating Japan.
‘Obviously the result a couple of years ago shows you that they are a very good team and we are going to have to be at our best to beat them. We won’t underestimate them but we will still have confidence in ourselves to win the game.’
Former Wales and Lions cap Mike Phillips was critical of Scotland’s decision to celebrate the small wins in the South African contest, taking to Twitter to suggest that, rather than cheering for penalties, they wait until they’ve won a championship. Horne felt that was wide of the mark.
‘We’ve got to make our own energy during the game,’ he explains. ‘If that means celebrating a penalty, then that brings energy throughout the squad.
‘It’s something we are not going to stop doing. It works for us, so we will keep doing it. After a try or a penalty or scrum we are all congratulating and trying to gee each other up and I think that’s great.
‘It shows how much of the team spirit we’ve got going at the moment. It’s never nice when you see another team celebrating everything. It kind of winds the other team up, so maybe that helps us as well.’
I’d love to start every game but as a No 9 often the role is to come off the bench