Rory Darge was a surprise choice to captain Scotland in Saturday’s home game against Italy, and on Friday the Glasgow openside admitted he had been blindsided by the decision of Gregor Townsend, the head coach, to give him the honour.
Jamie Ritchie remains the team’s captain for the Rugby World Cup, so the appointment of Darge, 23, for this first of four warm-up matches has probably been made with an eye to the longer term. However, given that Ritchie is among the senior players who are absent on Saturday afternoon, a less experienced leader was always likely for the national team’s first outing since the retirement of former captain Stuart Hogg.
“I’ve only got seven caps at this level, so I didn’t really see it coming,” Darge said. “It’s a bit of a weird feeling. It was pretty special when Gregor told me last Friday. It didn’t frazzle my head, but I was just glad that I had time to digest it and tell my folks, take time to think about what’s expected of me throughout the week.”
One of several recent graduates to professional rugby from the small town of North Berwick, Darge explained that Keith Hogg, the former youth coach who died aged 66 last month after a long illness (and no relation to Stuart), had played a major role in his development. “Keith Hogg just made it enjoyable for myself and everyone my age who came to rugby. I loved it and he was a big part of why. A lot of mini coaches sometimes [place emphasis] on winning and performance: he just had it on enjoyment, which I think at that level is absolutely the right thing to do.”
With home and away games against France to come before the warm-ups end with a Murrayfield match against Georgia and the current squad of 41 set to be cut to 33 before the World Cup, Townsend expects a reassuringly solid performance from his squad today. There should still be room for a degree of experimentation, however, against opponents who are just as committed as Scotland to an open, attacking game and who came pretty close to winning at Murrayfield in the last round of the Six Nations.
“They definitely like to throw it about, which will bring challenges – and opportunities,” Darge added. “We’ve had a decent look at Italy, but a lot of the focus has been on us.”
Blair Kinghorn saved the day on that March afternoon, scoring the last-gasp try which clinched a 26-14 victory after heavy Italian pressure. Stuart Hogg’s departure means the Edinburgh back is again being considered primarily as a 15 rather than a 10, although today he begins on the bench, while Ollie Smith starts at full-back.
Elsewhere in the back division, Glasgow’s Stafford McDowall makes a long-awaited debut at inside centre, while in the pack the Leicester lock Cameron Henderson will hope for a debut off the bench.
As the opening fixture in the 15-match Summer Nations Series which takes place over the next five weekends, the Scotland-Italy game will be first to showcase a number of innovations which Six Nations Rugby hopes will both support match officials and speed up play. The new “bunker” process, for example, should cut down on the amount of time wasted reviewing incidents of potential foul play.
While referees remain in charge and television match officials are still in place, foul-play incidents in which a red card is not immediately obvious will be referred to a foul play review officer in the bunker. The player in question will leave the field for 10 minutes and the FPRO will have up to eight minutes to review the evidence, after which the referee will either give the player a red card or allow him back after 10 minutes in the sin-bin.
As happened during the Six Nations, a shot clock will also be in place, allowing kickers 90 seconds for a conversion and 60 for a penalty.
Hawk-Eye will be used as the independent video replay operator, and ref cam returns to give broadcasters new angles on the play.
