No way we’re Six feet under
Rory confident Scotland still in running for champs glory
Rory Darge was straining with emotion hearing the national anthem ring around Murrayfield – and his involvement only went as far the warm-up.
Now the Glasgow forward says it will be the realisation of a dream he’s had since a boy if selected to make his home debut on Saturday.
And the 21-year-old is adamant Scotland still have a Six Nations winning tune in them despite defeat in Wales on weekend two.
Darge knows if they are going to get their title bid back on track against France they will need to play better.
Gregor Townsend’s troops lost 20-17 in Cardiff after downing England at home by the same score.
They played well in patches of both games but never hit top form, which Darge knows must change.
The flanker finally made his debut off the bench against Wales and the question now is whether he can keep his place in the 23.
The youngster plays in the same position as former Edinburgh team-mate Hamish Watson and is unlikely to replace him.
However, he came on in the Principality with Watson still on the pitch and there is a case for having the two fastest forwards in the squad working together for at least part of the showdown.
Townsend will name his team on Thursday and Darge said: “I’ve been to Murrayfield a lot as a fan. And for the England game I did the warm-up with the boys.
“So I was soaking in the atmosphere and during the anthems I was quite emotional being back there for the first time with fans in a full-voiced stadium.
“If I got the opportunity, yeah, absolutely, dream come true.”
The French have justified their billing as title favourites with wins over Italy and Ireland.
Darge said: “It was massively disappointing we lost to Wales but we’ve still got three huge games left.
“If you try to put it in perspective, we’ve won a really big game against England then lost another game by a really small margin where we were disappointed with the performance and result.
“At this level it’s about small moments and what impact that can have, the margins it comes down to. We know what France will bring.
“Every moment is going to be massively important against them.” In the past the French often failed to do themselves justice away but this side are far more consistent. Darge has faced some of their players twice this season – when Glasgow lost home and away to La Rochelle in the Champions Cup – and expects the national team to adopt similar tactics. He added: “In terms of what we expect, it’ll be similar to what French teams bring as a whole. “La Rochelle have a few players in their team who you’d imagine will be playing for France – big men who run hard and try to get offloads away.”