Scotland can be dark horses for the Autumn Nations Cup tournament, with a settled squad on a solid run of wins and confidence high, believes Hamish Watson.
Scotland have won four games in a row, a run that started in their game in Italy in February. A win in Florence on Saturday will match the Scots’ best run since rugby went pro in 1995 – they last won five in succession in 2011, although two of those were World Cup warm-ups and one was Romania.
With wins over France and now Wales away, this is a far better run and Watson says the squad are confident but far from complacent.
“Every game will be tough, Italy away from home has always been tough for us,” he pointed out. “But I think we have got quite a nice group and France at BT Murrayfield has been a good one for us in recent years.
“We know how good they are, but I think we can put ourselves in a good position to top the group and then see what happens.
“This is a great squad of boys we have got, we are all very close, a tight knit group. The coaching staff have put us in a really good position to make things happen, but at the same time in sport things can chance very quickly and you start to get stick again.
“After the Ireland and England defeats, the media were saying things and saying the coaching staff wasn’t right, but sport is fickle so we have got to keep going.
“We know how good we are as a group and we just have to prove things with results.”
A key to the Scoits’ recent success has been the back row partnership of Watson and Edinburgh team-mate Jamie Ritchie in attack and defence, and the pair have adapted well to the new breakdown interpretations.
“I don’t think we have had to change what we do too much,” he said. “You need a bit more speed to the breakdown and you have to be more careful when you are attacking, and we see now how easy it is for a jackaller to get a penalty.
“It’s all about speed to contact now. The main thing is to show upward motion: when you are on the ball you have to make more of an effort to pull it away instead of just hanging in there.
“For me and Jamie I think it has been really good. It’s really good to have a 6 who also likes jackalling. Down in Wales he got three turnovers so it’s good that we can both have a crack at it.”
He’s not at all surprised at Ritchie’s speedy rise since joining Edinburgh as a 17-year-old.
“I’m there with him at training every day and I see how hard he trains and how hard he works; it’s not hard for me to believe how well he’s doing.
“Full credit to him – he’s playing really well at the moment and I enjoy playing with him in the back row. It’s good for Scotland, good for the team.
“I know that he was really good at under-20s and was always a leader there as well, and I think (leadership) is something he has always been good at
“He is still a young lad but he is one of the leaders of this team now. Who knows – he may be a future Scotland captain. He just has to keep his head down, keep working and who knows what he will achieve.”
Scotland have been getting results and now they want to show they can play attractive rugby on top of that, added Watson.
“Let’s hope conditions are good: it definitely wasn’t a thriller down in Wales, but it was tough conditions down there and if you are getting the wins I don’t think it matters.
“Yes, we want to play attractive, flowing rugby, but at the end of the day winning is the most important thing.
“If it is another rubbish day we’ll just have to overcome that and get the win somehow. But if the sun is shining then let’s hope we can show a bit more of our attacking stuff as well.”