IT is not often that a player becomes a fixture in the Scotland team before he has played for his country at Murrayfield, but that is what has happened to John Hardie. After just five caps, the openside flanker has cemented his place in Vern Cotter’s side, and, while the national stadium is familiar to him as he plays for Edinburgh there, turning out against England on Saturday will still be a special experience.
“It’s really exciting,” the 27-year-old said yesterday. “If selected to play it would be a massive moment. It doesn’t get much bigger than the Calcutta Cup - I’ll be really ecstatic and it will be awesome for the team. It would be great to get off to a good start.”
Hardie’s biggest strength is probably his relentless consistency, exemplified by the key statistic from his first Scotland outing last summer: 16 tackles, no misses. But the forward himself insists there are aspects of his game that need worked on, and he believes that Richie Gray, Scotland’s new breakdown coach, is the man to help him improve.
“He’s brought a real knowledge to the breakdown game,” he explained. “The breakdown’s going to be important, attacking and defensive. One of my work-ons, probably not one of my strengths, is over the ball. He’s been great for me and I’m trying to improve that area.
“He’s been good with everyone and has really fitted in well. I’ve really enjoyed him so far.
“I still have a lot of improving to do. You just have to be smart and make smart decisions and do what benefits the team. You have to know your role, where you’re meant to be, and work around other players.
“I’ve had a look at a few of their loose forwards and they’ve got a couple of good young players coming through. They’re looking reasonably good, so we’ll need to be on our toes and look at what their strengths are. We’ll be up for a battle in that area.”
Scotland have not had much time together to prepare for the Six Nations Championship - at least not compared to the Rugby World Cup, when they were in camp for months beforehand - but Hardie is sure they will hit the ground running. “We’ve got a lot of the same personnel. Not a lot changes.
“We’ve had St Andrews [a training camp last week] and we just have to get back into knowing our roles and systems. I think we still read each other and complement each other really well, so there will be no excuses.”
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