The last time Scotland played at home, Hamish Watson was talking the talk, but he is hoping that this weekend he will be back in the more familiar routine of rucking the ruck, mauling the maul, tackling everything that moves in a red jersey and generally trying to walk the walk.
The Edinburgh flanker has been a key figure as the national team set about fortifying their home ground over the last two years, an ever present in the five victories that took them unbeaten there through two Six Nations campaigns, prior to that defeat to Ireland last month.
The broken hand suffered as yet another fine win was recorded at Murrayfield in January, when Edinburgh defeated Montpellier to secure top spot in their Champions Cup pool and a home quarter-final, meant he was sidelined for that encounter with the defending champions which, from the analyst’s chair, he reckoned could have seen the run continue to a seventh successive home win in the championship, a week after Scotland had opened up with a win over Italy.
READ MORE: Scotland duo Sean Maitland and Chris Harris to miss Wales tie
“I did a bit of commentary for the Ireland game and it was too many errors, really,” he said. “I think we conceded 22 turnovers and I thought that game was there for the taking.
“We played very well in the first half [but] just before the break we didn’t score that try and that was a massive momentum swing. If we’d scored there we would have probably gone on to win because Ireland were a bit on the rack there.
“That was disappointing and from there we just seemed to be chasing the game, made a few too many errors. You make 22 unforced errors in a game and you’re going to struggle to win.”
His assessment of events in Paris a fortnight later, was similar, if a bit more generous.
“France was tough, it was a weird game and they scored a few tries at the end which I thought flattered the scoreline,” he said, contradicting the majority view which was that Scotland were lucky to be just a single score behind at the interval. “I don’t think we deserved to win the game, but again, a lot of errors, set-piece went a bit away from us at the end there as well, the scrum . . . both a bit disappointing but we can bounce back this week.”
By contrast they are preparing to face a Wales team that could have not been more buoyant after the last round of Six Nations matches when a defeat of England kept them on course for a Grand Slam.
However, they must deal this week with domestic turmoil, coach Warren Gatland admitting that news of a potential merger of their two most successful regional teams, the Ospreys and the Scarlets, has been a distraction for his players.
Watson is, however, too experienced to be drawn into hoping that will make things any easier for this week’s home team.
READ MORE: Warren Gatland admits Wales players affected by uncertainty
“I don’t think that’ll affect them at all to be honest,” he said. “If you were in an international camp and you hear that Edinburgh and Glasgow are merging, I wouldn’t care too much about it until you’re back into that.
“They’ve got to concentrate on what they’re concentrating on. They might have a joke with one of their Scarlets mates if they’re an Ospreys player, but until it’s actually set in stone I wouldn’t be too worried about that if I was one of the Welsh boys. They’ve got to focus on the international stuff.”
Wales remain favourites, then, but Watson expects a strong Scottish response.
“There’s pressure from fans, maybe a bit from the media, but we’re the ones who put pressure on ourselves to win,” he said.
“The reason there’s pressure is because we’ve done so well the last couple of years, so it’s a good pressure to have. We’ve got another great opportunity to win a home game and I know we lost against Ireland, but over the last two years we’ve not lost many at home, so we’ve got a proud record there as well.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here