The most exciting thing about Zander Fagerson is that no-one knows how good he’s going to be, says Scotland forwards coach Jonathan Humphreys.
The 21-year-old tight-head from Kirriemuir was still on the pitch at the end of Scotland’s 27-22 Six Nations victory over Ireland, an exceptionally rare 80-minute shift in maybe the most strength-sapping position on the pitch.
But it’s partly the coaching team’s faith in the youngster even at his tender age and experience that he was left on, and Humphreys reckons that he could be a huge figure for Scotland over the next decade.
“He’s got the minerals to make a significant impact in international rugby for a long, long time,” said the Welshman. “But we’ve still got to understand that a lot of the stuff with him is potential.
“Like any 21-year-old there’s a lot to work on, he’s basically learning his trade in the hardest arena possible. So while we’re delighted with him so far, to be honest we’re even happier with what he could become, what he could be in the future.”
Fagerson satyed on for the full 80 on Saturday because the game changed in the final ten minutes and his attributes were needed on the field, continued Humphreys.
“We were looking to put Simon Beghan on but we started getting momentum back,” he said. “Zander’s just 21, we don’t ask Ross Ford to play 80 minutes but Zander can do it.
“He stayed on because he gives you so many other things, but the last thing we want is for him to feel he’s the finished article because he’s not.
“He’s got a lot of growth and that is the exciting thing. Guys are still learning their trade in that position at 29 and 30, we don’t know what Zander can be and that’s exciting.
“Who knows, this may be as good as he’ll ever be. Or this may just be the start of what he could be. But potentially it’s great, a young quality Scottish prop and there’s more klike him coming through the Academies. That’s really, really encouraging.”
Humphreys accepts that the setpiece is going to undergo another huge test at the weekend in Paris but feels Scotland should confront France in every area.
“Sometimes you weigh up what’s beneficial for the whole game and what’s beneficial for specific areas but ultimately we don’t want to trade off on anything,” he said.
“We believe with the personnel we have that we can compete in all areas. We have utmost faith in these boys that they can compete and make a difference for us all over the park.”
That includes the creaking scrummage where Humphreys thinks Scotland eventually got it solved against Ireland.
“It took us a little while to deal with it and we need to make sure we start more accurately,” he said, saying that France’s tight-heads both have a reputation of scrummaging at “acute angles”.
“It’s up to us to make sure we can deal with that, like we had to deal with it at the weekend,” he said. “As I understand it’s supposed to be a pushing contest with everyone pushing the same way, now I see things going on at the highest level that make it obvious to the naked eye that people aren’t pushing straight.
“If that’s the case, we have to deal with it if the refs won’t. It was an issue for us on Saturday in that we didn’t solve it straight away.
“You’re going to get away with what you get away with. If you can push early or scrummage at angles and get away with it, good luck to you. We need to be able to solve it.”
Veteran hooker Ross Ford agrees with his assistant coach that Fagerson has come on even since the Autumn Tests and the Scots have to front-up up-front against the French.
“Zander has done exceptionally well, to play 80 minutes at tighthead is a big shift,” said Ford, who won his 103rd cap as an early replacement for Fraser Brown on Saturday.
“He’s a confident boy but he is so keen to learn as well. We discuss things that we could do better all the time, just as I would with Al (Dickinson) and WP (Nel) who are the guys I would normally look to for advice.
“He’s come on even since we were together in the autumn, he’s surer of himself, his ball-carrying and defence have come on leaps and bounds.
“He has the bread and butter stuff down now and doesn’t have to worry about the small stuff.
“I don’t expect he’ll have any problems against France, He will be fine. He has performed well in Europe against big scrummaging packs like Racing’s and Leicester so no reason to change on Sunday.”
And there’s no answer to French power than to face it straight up, added Ford.
“We just have to be technically better,” he said. “They may be bigger but physically we have to be able to match them, there is no way round it.
“We did that at times on Saturday but they are a big squad, a big team, we have to be bloody minded and be smart along with it.”
Scotland have no injury issues for the weekend with Finn Russell clearing the final stage of his Head Injury Assessment and rejoining training.
