Rory Darge: Scotland's French recce will aid them at World Cup
Rory Darge believes Scotland’s two pre-tournament visits to France this summer will stand them in good stead for the upcoming World Cup.
Gregor Townsend’s side are one of the only contestants to have spent time in the host nation in the months leading up to the global showpiece, which gets under way in less than four weeks.
The Scots stayed at their World Cup training base near Nice in late June, and they returned there last week for four days to further acclimatise and familiarise themselves with the facilities and surrounding area before travelling north to Saint-Etienne for Saturday’s agonising 30-27 defeat against Les Bleus.
Darge believes their stints in the French heat will help them feel at ease when they fly back out to Nice on September 3 to step up preparations for their tournament opener against South Africa in Marseille a week later.
“It’s been huge in terms of our preparations, it’s been ideal,” said flanker Darge.
“We’ve been in Nice before in the hotel that we’re going to be staying in at the World Cup, so it’s nice to get into the routine of it in terms of knowing what it looks like, getting the bus to training and back etc.
“We’ve been getting into the routine of what a match week will look like when we’re back out for the World Cup.
“The heat is a big factor as well so we’ve been trying to get used to that as much as we can.”
The Scots got an early flavour of what the atmosphere might be like in French stadiums throughout the World Cup as they encountered a partisan home support inside Stade Geoffroy-Guichard on Saturday.
“It was a special atmosphere, unbelievable,” said Darge. “You couldn’t hear much in the warm-up and then the anthems, as always, were unbelievable.
“Even at the start of the game (when Scotland were on top), the atmosphere didn’t die away. It was special to play in.
“It definitely whets the appetite to come back out and play more games in stadiums like this at the World Cup. We’ll not be up against a home crowd like that (in the group games), but I’m sure the atmosphere at the games will still be special.”
Although the Scots were disappointed not to get a victory in searing Saturday-night heat in Saint-Etienne, they took immense encouragement from the way they went toe-to-toe with the world’s second-ranked team on their own patch.
Scotland led 10-6 after half an hour, lost their way for a period just before and after the interval and then roared back from 27-10 down to level the match at 27-27 before succumbing to a late Thomas Ramos penalty.
“We were gutted we didn’t get a result but at the same time we had a much better performance in the first half (than in the match at home to the French the previous weekend),” said Darge.
“We talked a lot in the week building up to it about starting well.
“For a lot of the second half we were good as well, it was just that little period at the start of the second half when they got two quick tries. That five minutes at the start of the second is what we’ll look at most from the performance.”
At 27-10 down, with French tails up early in the second half, Scotland were staring at an obliteration. But just as they had done when fighting back from 21-3 behind to beat the French 25-21 at Murrayfield the previous weekend, the Scots showed their resilience and flair to roar back into the game.
“It’s a weird one, it’s just a feeling you get,” said Darge, when asked how they keep coming back.
“We were obviously saying all the same messages we’ve said in the past, like ‘let’s just focus on this moment’ and deal with the next job, that kind of mindset.
“And, yeah, we did that and we gave ourselves a chance to win the game towards the end.
“We will take confidence from it. Obviously they’re one of the best sides in the world and we were in a pretty hostile environment but we went straight at them from the start. We can definitely take positives from it.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Why cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
31 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
4 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
31 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
31 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
31 Go to comments