The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Gilchrist seeks to win his Scotland place back
Big lock desperate to impress after recall for Wallabies clash
Grant Gilchrist looked like a man with some catching up to do against New Zealand – and he gets the chance to reclaim the Scotland shirt which once seemed his for years.
The 27-year-old from Alloa was Vern Cotter’s first choice as Scotland captain back in 2014, but that set in trail a series of injury calamities which have afflicted the Edinburgh lock for the last three years.
He broke his arm before he could play for Scotland after Cotter’s anointing, then tore a groin muscle in his comeback against the USA in the 2015 Rugby World Cup, and then broke his arm again.
Then last year he struggled to regain his best form having missed so much of the previous two seasons and saw first Jonny Gray and then clubmate Ben Toolis steal a march on him.
He played in Cotter’s final match against Italy in March but wasn’t even picked for the summer tour to Singapore, Australia and Fiji.
However, having been left out of the 23 for the first test against Samoa this autumn, Gilchrist came in after Tim Swinson’s wrist injury and had a storming final few minutes against New Zealand, his powerful ball-carrying a major factor in Scotland’s final charge that came up just short.
That seems to have impressed Gregor Townsend enough to give Gilchrist a recall for Australia tomorrow, and with Richard Cockerill at Edinburgh another fan it seems the big lock is getting back to his best at last.
“Over the last two seasons I’ve probably been gradually getting back to my best,” he said.
“I think I’m playing as good as I ever have played right now, regardless of injuries. I take the confidence from that and go out and play. I don’t think about the past, there’s enough going on right now.”
He admitted that he pushed himself too quickly to come back once his catalogue of injuries had cleared.
He added: “It takes a little while to get back to your best and you take it for granted.
“You assume that maybe while you have a couple of years where you don’t play a lot, you will go back to what you were straight away, and that’s something I learned.
“I maybe put too much pressure on myself early on to be the player I was, rather than concentrating on getting back to match sharpness and making sure I improve every day.”
The Scots have been firm and united in the view that the Australians will be even tougher than the world champions they ran so close at the weekend, in the belief that the eventual 30-9 scoreline didn’t accurately reflect the way the Wallabies’ clash with England went at the weekend.
The Scots are also conscious that the Australians are gunning for them after the surprise win in Sydney in June.
“We have spoken all week about it being just as big a challenge as last week,” said Gilchrist.
“They’re a much-improved side from the team we beat and played really well against in the summer.
“The task is pretty much what it was last week: we’re playing one of the best sides in the world at home, which is something we’re relishing but we know where the challenge lies.”
Yesterday the Wallabies accepted Scottish Rugby’s offer to finish their training at Murrayfield after the facilities they were using at the University of Edinburgh’s Peffermill sports complex became unplayable and there were no alternatives.
However, large green screens were erected around the training pitch to ensure that none of what they were working on could be observed.
Head coach Michael Chieka, although again distracted by the ludicrously elongated disciplinary panel hearing into his reaction to decisions from their defeat at Twickenham, has named two changes from the team that lost to England.
Former captain Stephen Moore, who announced earlier this week that this will be his final game before retiring, starts at hooker winning his 129th cap, while Ben McCalman comes in for the injured Ned Hanigan in the back row.