Ben White: Top 14 experience could propel Scots to new heights

Ben White believes three seasons in the Top 14 pressure cooker have made him better equipped for the demands of representing Scotland.

The 27-year-old scrum-half moved to Toulon from London Irish after the 2023 World Cup.

Reflecting ahead of Saturday’s Guinness Six Nations opener in Italy on how he has evolved during his time in the south of France, White said: “It’s been great for me.

“It’s been an amazing experience. I love playing out in France. The Top 14 is a tough league, and it has different challenges to playing in other leagues. One of the biggest things that I’ve found playing in the Top 14 is that every game is a massive occasion.

“You’re playing in front of sell-out crowds every week. There’s so much pressure on the home team to win. You have that level of pressure that almost feels the same as a Test match, which is something that took me a bit of time to get used to.

“I feel that when I come back into the Scotland environment, I’ve been playing every week in high-pressure games where ‘we must win, we must win’ is the message.

“And that transfers and makes you feel more comfortable in those high-pressure environments, which they are when you’re playing international rugby. So I feel it’s prepared me really well.”

White is expected to start in Rome on Saturday after becoming Scotland’s most pre-eminent scrum-half since taking over the mantle from Ali Price for the 2023 Six Nations.

“From a more technical rugby perspective, I think that as a scrum-half playing in France, it can be a little bit messier, a little bit more free-flowing, a little bit more open,” he said.

“And you’re obviously around a lot of big bodies and the rucks are scrappier, so then when I come to play with Scotland, I think some of that stuff that I work on at club about trying to be fast and move the ball away from the ruck quickly when it’s messy, when I come here and I can transfer those skills, it helps me in those moments.”

White is not the only Scot playing in the Top 14, with Blair Kinghorn at Toulouse, Jonny Gray at Bordeaux, Price and Stuart Hogg at Montpellier, Jamie Ritchie at Perpignan and Huw Jones set to join him at Toulon next season.

“Obviously, I played against a couple of the guys the other week when we played Montpellier, and it’s obviously going to be really nice to have Huw joining me in Toulon,” said White.

“One of the beauties of the Top 14 is there’s so many good players and it is a great competition. In my opinion, the more players we have from Scotland playing in the league and playing at the highest level across Europe, it’s fantastic for us and it drives the quality of the squad.”

White feels any negativity after Scotland’s disappointing autumn has been parked, with full focus now on making an impact in the Six Nations.

“You start fresh, and hopefully we take the learnings that we’ve spoken about from November into this,” he said. “It’s been a great couple of weeks building up to this. Training’s been great.”