Hamish Watson is desperate to make up for lost time and play a major part at this year’s Rugby World Cup after missing out altogether in 2015 and seeing only minimal action four years ago.
The 31-year-old made his debut shortly before the 2015 tournament - too late to force his way into then head coach Vern Cotter’s final squad for the tournament in England. In 2019, Watson was close to being an automatic choice for the squad that Gregor Townsend took to Japan, and looked set to play a major role in Scotland’s campaign - only for a knee injury in the first half of the team’s opening game against Ireland ended his involvement in the tournament.
Little wonder then, four years further on, that Watson is so keen to ensure he is in Townsend’s final squad for France. The current head coach has been training with a squad of 41, which will be trimmed to 33 over the next fortnight. It would be a major upset if the Edinburgh openside were not to make the cut, but the player himself is taking nothing for granted, believing as he does that competition for places in the back row is as tough as he has known.
“2015 was pretty disappointing,” he said earlier this week. “I remember getting cut and it was pretty gutting, even as a young lad.
“You hope you’ll have another chance, which I did in 2019. I felt really good going into the last World Cup, playing really well in those summer Tests. But then I got injured in the first game.
“I’ve only played one game in a World Cup, so I’m obviously massively motivated to try and get to another and hopefully play a few games at it. But then so is everyone else. Some people are going to their first World Cup, some people their third, so I think everyone is just as motivated, and it’s pretty tight for spots as well.”
Besides Watson, his Edinburgh team-mates Jamie Ritchie and Luke Crosbie, Josh Bayliss of Bath and Glasgow’s Rory Darge, Matt Fagerson and Jack Dempsey are all in contention for the three back-row berths. It is therefore unsurprising that Watson is convinced that this is the strongest back-row group there has been in his time with Scotland. “I think so,” he continued. “It’s always tough, because I think in Scotland we’re quite lucky - we always seem to have a really strong group of back-rowers.
“This time round it definitely feels like there’s a lot of depth in those positions. There is an amazing group of players in that back row and it’s probably one of the most hotly contested positions.
“No idea,” he continued when asked how many back-row players he expects Townsend to include in his final squad. “It’s a bit of a guessing game. There are seven in the squad at the moment and there are 33 players going, so I imagine it’ll be five or six. It might depend on whether they take a second row who can play that position. Who knows? I haven’t been given an indication.”
Watson sat out last weekend’s 25-13 win over Italy, but is expected to be in the team to play France at Murrayfield this Saturday in the second of Scotland’s four warm-up games. Townsend, who will announce his side this morning[Wed], has said he plans to put out “as strong a team as possible” between this home game and the return in St Etienne seven days later. That will mean the likes of Pierre Schoeman, Duhan van der Merwe, Finn Russell and Zander Fagerson returning to action alongside Watson as the Scots seek to sharpen their attack.
The last of the warm-ups, at home to Georgia on Saturday 26, will be a demanding challenge, especially up front. But the double-header against the World Cup hosts will constitute the severest test of Scotland’s cutting edge before attention turns to the tournament itself, in which they face South Africa, Ireland, Tonga and Romania in their pool.
“There’s never really a friendly or warm-up game in rugby,” Watson insisted. “France are one of the best teams in the world, we’re ranked No 5, so it’s going to be a really tough game. I don’t think there’s any sort of warm-up element to it - it’s going to be a pretty tough physical game. The players prepare as if it’s a Six Nations game: it’s a massive game for us.
“I think it’s all about trying to play as best as you can in these first few games so you can build momentum going into the World Cup. In the World Cup we know it’s a tough pool, but on our day we believe we can beat anyone. We know it's going to be hard, but you’ve got to beat them all, I guess, if you want to get far.”
