Tommy Seymour and Blair Kinghorn are the latest to join Scotland’s overcrowded injury list and Stuart Hogg was also confirmed as being out of the final 6 Nations game against England at Twickenham, but Mike Blair still believes Scotland have the personnel to win there for the first time in 36 years.
The hopeful Hogg watch ended predictably with the player, who suffered a shoulder injury a few minutes into the second game of the championship against Ireland, finally judged not to be ready to resume full training. Seymour (rib) and Kinghorn (ankle) were both withdrawn during the Wales game and have not recovered to be considered for Saturday’s game.
Scotland have called up veteran Ruaridh Jackson and new Glasgow recruit Kyle Steyn – who has played just three games for the Warriors – as cover but Blair also announced that Sean Maitland has returned to the squad after missing the Welsh game and will be “in the mix” to play at full-back in Hogg and Kinghorn’s absence.
The Scotland assistant coach also strongly disputed any impression that the Scots were too nice and soft losers after the defeat to Wales at the weekend, with the constant references to positives after the game from the squad members and the twitter messages thanking the fans from players.
“We have got a lot of bad losers, we have a lot of competitive guys,” said Blair. “The changing room afterwards was silent for a long time, losing at Murrayfield for a second time in a row is not the result that you want.
“The guys were unhappy with the way the team performed and the individual errors that resulted in the loss.
“I would not know where the impression would come that we are not bad losers. When you pull on the jersey and represent the whole of the nation we are aware that is a big task and the guys do all they can to get the win.”
Blair added it was unfair to “read someone’s emotions based on what they write in a text messages or on Twitter”.
“I don’t do social media stuff throughout the championship but it is a difficult balance,” he said. “What a lot of the guys do is thank the support which is really important.
“Guys who got their 50th caps as well, Tommy (Seymour) and Jonny (Gray) , it is important to show them the respect that is deserved for reaching those milestones. It takes nothing away from the fact the guys are really hurt.”
No one in the camp was underplaying the difficulty of winning at Twickenham, but most of the Scots would not feel the weight of the long wait since 1983 to win there.
“It’s one of the hardest places in the world to go and win, the history of the fixture will show that, but a lot of these guys won’t feel that 36 years of hurt,” he said.
“There have been games over the years where Scotland have really challenged England and had opportunities to win but haven’t been able to get it over the line. We feel with this group of players we’ve got that we will be able to get things right.
“We’ve got the personnel and the game to be able to do that. We feel we‘ve not shown enough of that this championship and with only one game left, it’s about time we did.”
As for the latest banter from England head coach Eddie Jones – accusing them of “over-celebrating” last year’s win – the Scots weren’t paying it a great deal of attention, and wouldn’t be papering the walls with his comments to use as motivation.
“If we did that we wouldn’t have enough room on the wall,” said Blair. “Eddie enjoys having that relationship with the media, dropping a few comments here and there.
“We can’t affect how Eddie Jones sees us behaving. The win we had last year was a good win, I’m sure the English had a good time celebrating the win against Ireland over there.”