Scotland are heading into this year’s Six Nations in the midst of an identity crisis. Are they a ‘golden generation’ of players who repeatedly under-perform and fail to achieve their potential? Or are they just not as good as people first thought or hoped? It’s a tough one to unravel.
That there is talent all the way through the squad is undeniable. Look at how Sione Tuipulotu, Huw Jones, Jack Dempsey and others perform for Glasgow Warriors to see what they are capable of. Watch Finn Russell pulling the strings for Bath or Blair Kinghorn not looking out of place in a star-studded Toulouse backline.
Consider the emphatic wins over England and Australia in recent years that showcase what this group is capable of when they all perform at their peak. There is plenty to admire on a good day.
The problem, however, is that those good days don’t crop up anywhere near often enough. A squad that ought to be in the top six in the world and contending for the Six Nations title every year, has never produced the requisite consistency to deliver on that possibility. To subvert the old maxim, they are the rare example of the sum of the parts being somehow less than the whole.
That instability in performance is reflected in indifferent results. A team capable of giving the Springboks, the All Blacks or, occasionally, Ireland a thorough test but invariably losing. A side that can slice rivals apart time and time again with their electrifying back-play only to then see their bottle crash later in the same match. It is a maddening split personality and one that will likely ensure that this is a group who will never hit the heights they could have been capable of.
That wearying sense of deja vu has helped create an air of ambivalence around the team heading into Saturday’s Six Nations opener against Italy in Rome, a fraught mission given the home side’s improvement over recent years and the Scots’ skittishness.
Finn Russell (left) has shone for Scotland but, like many others, does not perform consistently
Darcy Graham gets his fair share of tries but does not always score against the Tier One teams
Graham fumbles the ball at the tryline against New Zealand in the recent Test match
With Gregor Townsend taking charge of proceedings for a ninth championship, it is hard to envisage this one turning out any differently to the eight that preceded it. There have been encouraging noises out of camp about a winter reset and an owning of past failings. But should it all fall short again, Kyle Steyn knows they can’t keep gaslighting the public that things will somehow be better the next time.
‘I think the people of Scotland are sick of us talking about whatever it is we have been talking about,’ admitted the Glasgow captain, a man refreshingly willing to always call a spade a spade. ‘Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to deliver results against top teams on a consistent enough basis. I think they deserve to see us doing something as opposed to just carrying on talking about it.
‘It does pose a lot of pressure but there’s a lot of pressure in this arena. Look, those results [in the autumn against New Zealand and Argentina] were well below par, well below where we wanted and what the people of Scotland want. And that was fair enough.
‘We had some really raw and honest conversations off the back of that. I think that was why we are so excited for the Six Nations to come around. Because ultimately in Rome against Italy, that’s going to be the first time we’ll see whether we can deliver on what we said we were going to.’
Much has been made of the team’s failure to capitalise on strong starts and falling away in the latter stages of a match, especially when the opposition start to fight back. That would seem to hint at a mental deficiency more than any physical shortcomings and Steyn acknowledged they would need to improve on that aspect, starting in the Olympic Stadium this weekend.
‘We’ve just got to be better under pressure,’ he added. ‘In both the New Zealand and Argentina games, we put ourselves in a position to win the game. And we didn’t win the game, which is just….unacceptable is a strong word, but I think that’s kind of how we feel, particularly with the Argentina game.
‘Obviously there was probably a bit more nuance to the New Zealand game. But ultimately around 65 minutes in both games we had chances to win it and didn’t. I think we had to be really honest with ourselves about the fact that we probably didn’t have the tools in the chest to get it done under pressure.
‘It starts with the psychological side because the teams that have been able to do that really well, they do the basic rugby things really well under pressure. And I think that brings the psychological element into it.
Duhan van der Merwe is another who contributes tries but has often been found lacking in defence
‘What we’re working on most is confronting the fact that we’re going to face a lot of those moments in a big Six Nations campaign. And we just want to walk towards them and see how many of them we can come out on top of.’
Few could question Steyn’s character and it is that as much as his athletic prowess that ought to see him start on the wing against Italy, with Darcy Graham or Jamie Dobie on the opposite flank.
It is one of the selection conundrums that Townsend will need to juggle with over the coming days but Steyn is ready for whatever outcome the head coach arrives at.
‘His [Townsend’s] big message this week has just been to make training competitive. And that’s exactly what it’s been like in the back three. It’s fairly well documented now, the level of competition there is in that position. We’re all good mates with each other, all a good bunch of boys, so we understand the fact that there needs to be competition and we’re all pretty hungry for that.
‘I’m really happy to have had a good run of games and to be able to build some momentum, especially playing this time of year for Glasgow. The last two years I’ve missed out on what is a real crunch time of the season. So, it’s just been really fun to be involved.’