White: Finn guided Scotland can storm crowd-less Paris

Former Scotland captain Jason White has said that his country’s Calcutta Cup win will have given them the confidence to face France in Paris later in the Guinness Six Nations.

Speaking to Tim Groves, Benjamin Kayser and Johnnie Beattie on Le French Rugby Podcast, the former flanker said that momentum is ‘absolutely key’ in the Six Nations, which Scotland have struggled to build in the past.

This was only the third time since 2006 that Scotland have won their opening round of the tournament (one of those occasions was against Italy), and they head into today’s home contest with Wales with a lot of confidence after such a dominant win over England.

Calcutta Cup and George North v Jamie Ritchi‪e | RugbyPass Offload

Calcutta Cup and George North v Jamie Ritchi‪e | RugbyPass Offload

Gregor Townsend’s side have a trip to France in round three on the horizon, which could be crucial in determining the final standings of the tournament should they overcome Wales. White added that Scotland benefited from an empty Twickenham last Saturday, and could do at the Stade de France as well.

“I think momentum is absolutely key in the Six Nations,” he said. “I think for so many years Scotland have always lost the first game and the second game becomes really pressurised. So what an amazing start for us. If it goes with the scenario that we beat Wales this Saturday, which if we perform well enough we’re definitely good enough to, then by all means we’re good enough to take on France.

“We’ve benefited from a lack of crowds, we broke that hoodoo down in Wales. It is psychological to go down to Twickenham and not have 80,000 people there where 78,000 are going against you, there’s a little less pressure there.

“I wonder whether that is as relevant in Paris, but it has given the Scotland team the confidence to kick on and they will now believe that we can go to Paris. The fact that we’ve got Finn [Russell] in France doing so well, we’ve got the boys playing in different leagues with confidence, that if we get parity in the forwards, if we can get some dominance in the forwards then it’s game on.

“We’re definitely in the hunt, but it’s game by game. I’m the eternal optimistic Scotsman, for the last however many years I’ve said ‘this could be our year, this could be it,’ so I’m not going to change, this is going to be our year.