There is always a generous measure of internal competition in any training squad, with jerseys to be won and places in the pecking order to be either preserved or improved upon.
But the competition within the Scotland squad will be especially fierce over the next few weeks, as each member of the group of 41 selected by Gregor Townsend battles to avoid being one of eight players who must be cut before the Rugby World Cup.
The head coach originally aimed to settle on his final 33 after the second of the forthcoming quartet of warm-up games: against Italy on Saturday week at Murrayfield, then home and away against France, and finally at home to Georgia. It now appears possible that the cut will come a week or so later, but whatever the timing, the fact remains that the players will have precious little opportunity to state their case for selection anew.
So how do they cope with that pressure? How do they ensure that a healthy battle for places does not descend into internecine strife? The answer is simple, according to Grant Gilchrist.
“We all just need to have our big-boy pants on and get on with it,” the Edinburgh lock says. “That’s the reality of the situation.
“Everyone is desperate to be part of that final squad, obviously, but the best way to go about that individually is to give everything to the team, not to go into individual battles. That’s not going to impress the coaches or anyone at training, making it a one on one.
“It’s about making sure you’re doing your part for the team where you’re giving absolutely everything. That’s all you can ask. I know personally that if I give my absolute all and don’t make the squad then I’ll be able to look myself in the mirror and know that I did everything that I could. I could still be proud of myself. That’s the attitude that the players have to take.
“It’s not nice, obviously. It’s going to be devastating for the guys [who miss out], but that’s the reality that we’re in.”
Gilchrist believes it is especially important for players to commit themselves to the greater good over the coming weeks in order to give Scotland the best possible preparation for the World Cup.
In theory, it is perfectly possible for a team to play badly in all their warm-up matches but then come good in the tournament itself. However, in practice, according to the 32-year-old, the squad need to come good now before embarking on a pool stage that will see them play South Africa, Tonga, Romania and Ireland.
“For us to be successful come the World Cup we have to win these warm-up games,” he continues. “That’s what we’re setting out to do.
“If we want to go into that [first pool match against] South Africa and beat them, then we have to treat these games beforehand like proper Test matches, like a Six Nations. We’ll give everything in these games to make sure we’re sharp enough to go and beat South Africa in the first round of the World Cup, which is our goal.
“We know how tough the pool is, but we’re also in a stage of our development where we’ve been together now as a pretty settled group for a long time, and we’ve shown in spurts that we can mix it with the best teams in the world.
“We believe that, and we’ve shown it against the teams that we’ll be coming up against. I didn’t play in the Ireland game in the Six Nations, but in the first half we showed that intensity that’s needed to beat Ireland. We weren’t able to do it for 80 minutes.
“A similar story against South Africa in the [2021] Autumn Tests; at the 60-minute mark I think we were ahead and we knew what it took to win it. We didn’t quite have enough at that point, and now we’ve been working tirelessly over the last six weeks to make sure we can take the belief forward that we know we can beat these teams.
“We’re not quite there yet, but can we get that growth over the warm-up games so we can do it come the big time? I believe that with this group of players it’s the best chance we have.”
The best chance, and at least for some of the current squad, the last chance.
“I just think this team has been together since 2019 and has been on a bit of a journey,” he adds. “I think we’ve got better year on year and we’ve got ourselves to a position where it’s ‘If not now then never’.
“That’s my opinion. We’ve done the work, we’ve had the experiences as a team, good and bad, to shape it, and we now know what we need to do. It’s whether we can do it on the big stage.”
