Sean Maitland’s acclimatisation from Southern to Northern Hemisphere rugby is all but complete and now he has to prove it on the biggest stage for a back.
The New Zealand-born wing has been one of the finds of the RBS 6 Nations but he has not scored since the first 10 minutes of his debut at Twickenham and he’s beginning to get antsy.
Although there did not appear to be much space or ball to do anything in the last two games against Ireland and Wales, Maitland begs to differ.
“There were many opportunities for me against Wales,” he insisted. “When I looked at the footage after the Wales game, there were a lot, especially in counter-attack.
“They kicked a lot of ball to us and while you could say we didn’t get much ball, I felt I had a lot of chances to do a lot with it and maybe didn’t take the right options a few times.”
Maitland made the most yards of any Scot against the Welsh and the transition from Super Rugby to Six Nations has not been simple.
“I could sit down here and try to explain how different Super Rugby is to over here,” he said.
“I think the way we’re sort of playing our style, creating our own sort of attacking plan based on setpiece, is different.
“But we’ve got a lot of quality in our team and we’re just maybe lacking that last five per cent when we get down to a team’s try line, whether we play tight or we try to spread them.
“I think we’re just sometimes not thinking too well between the forwards and the backs and once we get that right, we can definitely put some teams away.
“There were a lot of opportunities out there against Wales but maybe hitting another pick and go gave the Welsh defence a chance to realign and then that’s the opportunity lost.
“Sometimes it is frustrating,” he continued, “but there were a lot of opportunities out there and once we start nailing them and start understanding how we play it as a team, it will be good.”
The main difference between Northern and Southern Hemisphere rugby for a wing, Maitland has found, is that you have to go looking for the ball rather than wait for it to come to you.
“In Super Rugby you get the ball a lot in the wide channels and the teams try to get put in space a bit more but over here, you’ve got to go looking for the ball.
“People have been saying it’s not really been a Six Nations for a winger but you’ve got to have a good workrate and that’s one thing I’ve tried to get better at just coming off my wing, trying to look for the ball and not getting frustrated just standing out there.”
Still, Maitland has already done enough in attack and defence to get mentioned among Lions possibles for this summer after only four games for his country.
“I know for a couple of guys in our squad it’s definitely a goal of theirs and this game is another trial match and for me, it is a goal as well,” he said.
“But in saying that, there’s a lot of quality wingers out there and whether I’ve done enough to prove myself, I’m not sure. I never really thought about the Lions. I always thought about playing for Scotland and it’s maybe a bit of a luck thing that I came over here and the Lions tour was on but it’s just coincidence, really.”
Maitland cannot wait to get to Paris, however, where he feels there may be some space to run.
“You think of France, you think of flair and the ball getting chucked about,” he said. “They’re going to want to avoid the wooden spoon and will come out all guns blazing.
“It’ll be tough and we haven’t won in Paris for a good while but we like the challenge this week.”