John Barclay’s preparation for the RBS Six Nations has been climbing mountains instead of playing rugby, but nothing he has attempted matches the assault facing Scotland as they take on France in the Stade de France this weekend.
The open-side, whose coming of age in international rugby has been a major factor in the improvement in the national side in the last year, was given two weeks off to rest for the championship opener and spent part of his time starting his collection of Munros.
Having climbed Ben Lomond with Scotland colleague Chris Cusiter, Barclay now turns his attention to helping secure Scotland’s first win in Paris in 12 years.
He said, “It was a New Year’s resolution to climb five Munros this year that was our first one and after that effort we might have to reduce that number.
“The players who come to Scotland from abroad to play always seem to spend more time doing Scottish things than the home-based guys, so Cus and I thought it would be a good idea, but it was much harder than we envisaged and I believe we took the easier route up.”
An illustration of how crucial Barclay is to Scotland is that he was given the recuperation time to “train hard, work on fitness and do some weights” before Paris, where his outstanding performance two years ago helped Scotland get close to the first win since 1999.
He said, “We can take from two years ago that we did well, and it has been the case that we’ve played a lot of our best rugby away from Muyrrayfield, notably Wales, Ireland and the two games in Argentina recently.
“On the other side of the coin the win in Ireland was only our second away win in the Six Nations in five years and we haven’t won an opening game in the championship very often, not since 2006.”
He added, “Looking at the way it’s being billed, it seems we’re coming into the game with a lot of confidence while France are being vilified by their press for losing that one game against Australia in November.
“But they’ve still got an incredible pack, some great players all over the pitch and it’s a massive challenge for us.”‘Great leader’For Barclay personally his growth in the team has seen him take in some leadership duties in concert with his captain at club and country, Al Kellock.
He said, “Al’s a great leader and he does it by example.
“He has great back-up from a number of guys in the team so that the decision making is shared out among senior players.”
He added, “For myself, I’m a lot more confident in what I’m doing now, and what I have to do well and help Scotland do well.
“France have a great back row and if they get on the front foot they’re hard to stop, but we’re very confident in our scrum and lineout.”
Kellock’s responsibilities at the official launch meant he missed the training game at St Andrews last week against a mix of Glasgow, Edinburgh and club players designed to get the Scots over the recurring “slow start” problem in recent championships.
“We were able to sort out some things early as a result of that and this week is about dotting the Is and crossing the Ts,” he said.
“I have to take the lead on that but we have senior guys like Rory Lawson, Dan Parks, Ross Ford and John,” said Kellock.
“We had a great session yesterday and we feel we’re ready for the French.
“We know how much we have to front up against them and face them down, especially in the scrummage and lineout, but we’re confident we can do that.”