Confidence does the trick for
Thursday 24 OcTOber 2013 towards ensuring no-one in the squad feels his position is safe.
Johnson is only interim coach but is already talking regularly with full-time successor Vern Cotter about the next two years leading up to the Rugby World Cup. Cotter believes Johnson’s strengths, notably attention to detail and skill development as well as motivation, will be invaluable as they try to make Scotland genuinely competitive.
But another key aspect of Johnson’s approach is building confidence and Seymour acknowledged that his style and the team’s summer performances instilled a belief in the players that, combined with a similar approach from Gregor Townsend, the head coach at Glasgow, and assistants Matt Taylor and Shade Munro, has cultivated a confidence that Scots do have the ability to perform at the highest level.
“Playing South Africa out there was massive for me,” he said. “To get two Test caps under high-pressure conditions was wonderful. It has allowed me to relax a bit more in my game and trust my instincts a bit more in the tougher games, like the Toulon one for example.
“I am having a bit more confidence in myself in what I can do. Everyone involved out there against South Africa and watching knew it was a massive thing to play the way we did. We ended up losing but we had a shout to win it and gave them a more comfortable scoreline with that last-minute try.
“It allows people to realise we are not going out just to play against these teams. We are going out to compete against them even in their own backyard. We can go and compete and, hopefully, win these games.
“It would be great to have another crack at them at Murrayfield. It would be the same feeling playing against Japan, South Africa or Australia – I would be thankful for any cap.
“Japan showed how good they were beating Wales so that is not a lesser cap, but, yes, playing South Africa in their backyard and losing means everyone involved in that game will relish the opportunity to get them at Murrayfield and put the result right.”
First though, Seymour has the not insignificant matter of a RaboDirect Pro12 match against Munster, currently second to the Warriors in the table, at Scotstoun tomorrow night. “We are pro players and boys can be very happy about their inclusion and go about congratulating each other,” he added, “but it has to be one of these things that you take in, get a pat on the back and go straight back to work.
“You can’t dwell on the Scotland stuff too much. You have to concentrate on the result against Munster. That is going to be a huge test but the confidence is there, and, having so many boys in the squad leading up to the Munster game, hopefully that confidence can bleed into the game and we can unite for this big one-two clash,” said Seymour.