Zander Fagerson is ready to do what his bosses tell him in terms of playing – but he’s hoping for some rest.
The 21-year-old tight-head sat out training yesterday at Oriam as the Scotland squad regrouped in the wake of the 22-16 loss to France in Paris on Saturday and started preparations for the visit of Wales to BT Murrayfield a week on Saturday.
But that was down to little niggles and the Kirriemuir boy hasn’t been told for sure whether he’ll be needed for Glasgow’s Guinness PRO12 match against Ulster in Belfast this weekend.
“I’m not the boss,” he laughed. “But I hope not!
“Seriously at the moment I’m loving my rugby and I want to play in every game. If Glasgow need me to play I will.”
But it’s impossible to imagine Scotland risking their young tight-head in a club game with the Welsh a week away, especially as he has put in two gruelling shifts in the opening Six Nations games, including all 80 minutes against Ireland.
“I didn’t get my breath back till the next day after Ireland, but, no, it didn’t affect me too much,” he stressed. “We had a good training week and the body was great coming into the France game, so it was fine. I wasn’t fatigued.”
Although he came off after just 50 minutes in Paris to be replaced by debutant Simon Berghan, it wasn’t the result of him running out of gas,” he continued.
“I wasn’t looking at the touchline for relief; I was against Ireland though, I was dying out there!” he joked.
“Really fitness is one of my strong points and if I’d had to play 80 against France I would have done it. I’ve played late into games for Glasgow and I can manage that easily.”
He admits that the mental examination of the Six Nations is one of the toughest elements and believes the wish of English clubs to play the entire championship in five weekends instead of the current seven is “completely implausible”.
“I feel sorry for the guys who might have to play for their clubs this weekend,” he said. “We get looked after pretty well here in Scotland so unless it’s a necessity I don’t think a lot of the boys will be playing.
“Having been in the junior World Cup, where you play five games over four weeks, it is pretty brutal, and that’s just at under-20 level. In internationally it would be ridiculous; I don’t think that could ever happen.
“It’s pretty tough already. You’re away from home, away from your family, in a hotel for seven weeks and physically you’re under a lot of pressure.
“Mentally, it is quite draining. We’re full-on. It’s full-on at a club as well, but international intensity is higher. You’ve got constant analysis, reviews and previews and there’s not a lot of switch-off time.
“Even on the days off you do get you’ve still got clips to look at when you’re home. I’m lucky, I’ve got my two dogs, and I just go for walks with them and my girlfriend, watch TV, play a little golf to wind down.”
Fagerson was in the front line of the scrummage problems in Paris but he doesn’t think it was down to pure French power.
“Certain opponents do different things at certain times, and sometimes we get it right and other times we haven’t, so it’s about consistency,” he said.
“The French were a big team but I didn’t think that power thing played a lot into (the loss). It was more about processing information and getting height, getting your bind and the right shoulder in and consistency in set-up.
‘We have to regroup, we’ve had a good review already and see what we did wrong and then look forward to Wales.’
He believes there is going to be improvement in the next three games, however.
“There is a lot we can do,” he added. “We have a good scrum, we just need to get the processes right, so I’m not worried about it at all.
“Wales do the same things as France and Ireland did and so we need to fight fire with fire. It will be a good challenge and I’m looking forward to it.”
Fagerson respects the Welsh and feels they should have beaten England last weekend.
“Some areas of their game have been good and they were unlucky against England, it probably their best for a while.
“Dan Biggar is a good player and Alun Wyn Jones is a talisman for them. He’s a good player for club and country. They have a few threats but I think they have a few chinks in their armour that I think we can attack.”
