BBC Scotland chief sportswriter Tom English joined Gavan Casey and Murray Kinsella on Wednesday’s Rugby Weekly Extra podcast.
WE’RE JUST THREE days out from kick-off at the Stade de France and closer still to Ireland and Scotland naming their teams for Saturday’s pivotal World Cup Pool B encounter.
And English believes that whereas Ireland would have for three years viewed their pool game with South Africa as ‘the big one’, Scotland will have been building more so towards their final pool game with a more familiar foe since the draw was made in December 2020 — which now takes on even further significance.
“Pierre Schoeman yesterday got quite emotional when he was talking about it: the opportunity, where he’s come from, the way he’s been accepted by Scottish people in Edinburgh where he lives. They know that this is it. And for quite a few of them — and it’s the same with the Irish boys — this could be it for their World Cup [careers]. Like, Finn Russell will be 35 by the time the next World Cup comes around.
“The back row, I find interesting: Jamie Richie will start, whether it’s at six or seven. And I know it was against Romania, but Hamish Watson looked very strong, very powerful. Will he come in instead of [Rory] Darge? “Will he go 6-2 on the bench, to have an extra, big ball-carrier to come on? I wouldn’t be surprised if he did it. He did it against France in the Six Nations and Scotland put in a powerful performance. They lost but they played bloody well that day.”
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