'No disrespect to Scotland, but one of the things that they need to get rid of is the mental fragility in the side'
Former England captain Nick Easter believes Scotland can solve their “mental fragility” by recalling Newcastle back row forward Gary Graham, who has helped the newly promoted club make an unbeaten start to their Gallagher Premiership campaign. Physicality has been a hallmark of Newcastle’s victories and Easter knows how important the ball carrying of Graham has been as the Falcons knocked over Bath, Sale and Wasps – three of last season’s top five clubs – with a ferocious forward effort.
John Barclay, the former Scotland captain, conceded that Gregor Townsend’s men had lost the physical battle going down 31-16 to Ireland in Dublin last weekend to round off their Autumn Nations Cup challenge.
Graham won his two Scotland caps to date in the 2019 Six Nations championship but relegation to the Championship hampered his international cause. Now, back in the English top flight, the 27-year-old is showing the kind of mental and physical strength that Easter, the Newcastle defence coach, is adamant Scotland are still missing and is needed if they are to challenge the best teams in Europe.
Easter, who is preparing Newcastle for their European Challenge Cup opener with Cardiff Blues on Friday night, told RugbyPass: “No disrespect to Scotland, but one of the things that they need to get rid of is the mental fragility in the side. You saw that against Ireland and Gary doesn’t have one iota of that in his make-up. He believes 100 per cent in what he is doing and will take it to the opposition come what may.
“He will keep doing his job and will not go off piste and is inspirational.
“What typifies Gary is the Sale game against a team who are very physical and full of hard South African boys, and he hurt his shoulder after 30 minutes and was struggling. He is tough as teak, got over that at half time and in the 80th minute he has carried the ball into Jean-Luc du Preez, the hard man of Sale who I know well from my time coaching the Sharks (in South Africa), and left him dazed.
“Gary has got up and two phases later has flown into a ruck to free up the ball and we score a try to win the match. That typifies his mentality and he refuses to be beaten. He will take on anyone and everyone and his influence on the group is massive and the belief goes up two or three fold when he is there. Gary has been playing some smart rugby at No8 and he is a very combative guy who has an astonishing work-rate.
“His work off the ball, the scrambling in the back field – he just doesn’t give up. He doesn’t know when he is beaten.
“Gary likes to take things head on and has provided us with great go forward ball. Our game plan allows Gary to get into the match and he has averaged around 20 carries in all three wins and it puts you on the front foot.”
Graham has been worked hard in the opening Premiership matches because Newcastle have been operating without injured back row players including England’s Mark Wilson, who could return to the match squad against Cardiff.
It has meant Sean Robinson has been pressed into service on the blind side rather than the second row while young Connor Collett has taken his chance to impress on the open side.
Easter added: “We had to move things around because five back rowers have been injured. Connor has come back from New Zealand and put in an outstanding pre-season and deserved his chance while Sean is second row but is good enough to play at No6 and has been one of our top three players in all of the games.”
Comments on RugbyPass
The game was changing too much with teams trying to role the dice drawing fouls. Would be better if scrums and the adjudicating problems were resolved but this is a good immediate fix.
37 Go to commentsLike many here I am encouraged by this post. Our forwards are where the real rewards and improvements must come from. With a 50/50 pack against any opposition, our backs could ensure more than 50% of the games will be won. We need Valetini at 6 and Cale at 8 to make the most or a good tight 5, McWright will add to the effectiveness of the pack BUT must get a very good tight 5 out there first.
97 Go to commentsThe key point I think that is missing is that if Joseph wants to guarantee a Lions spot, he really has to play wing in his first year. He is easily going to nail down whatever he wants to do, but with just half a season, how much of a factor he proves to be in the Lions series could be dictated by this initial choice of playing position.
8 Go to commentsthe game was 2 weeks before the challenge cup final. I really don’t believe they needed to rest that many players.
1 Go to commentsI really feel like neither of the Vunipolas is given the respect they deserve. I would have liked to see both of them get a few more caps than they have gotten in the past couple of years, but unfortunately the fact that they both peaked young has meant that for a number of years they have been perceived as disappointments. When they are both retired, in the cold light of day they will be recognised as two of the best players of their generation of any nation.
2 Go to commentsthis generation of saracens players could produce some really incredible coaches. When Farrell retires he could walk into any premiership team as a defence, attack, or kicking coach. Itoje could make it as a defence or a lineout coach, and Jamie George as a lineout or scrum coach. The problem the Vunipolas are going to have is that its not clear what their coaching speciality would be. Neither are great in the set piece, and while they were good in attack and defence, they were never tactical masterminds. Perhaps contact skills would be their ideal brief? Mako perhaps could work in strength & conditioning, but Billy has a bit of a reputation for not taking that side of the game seriously.
2 Go to commentsA very good player.We are finally getting some balance in our team. Plummer..Heem ..Lam a solid..experienced combo who take the sensible options consistently. Clarke was a grt impact of the bench option until Lam moved to 13 to replace an injured Reiko. Cotter is doing a grt job building his team. .
1 Go to commentsSaturday was last straw. Terrible record in Premiership since Jan 23. Capitulation against Bath at home. There are 3 conclusions. Players aren't good enough. Coaching team aren't good enough or combination of both.
2 Go to commentsAs you say in your article Brett, the point was Hamish and his vanity - plain and simple. The crazy bit is that sua’ali’i has to be probably twice the player of mark N, no easy feat, just for RA to get their money's worth!?! And as you say, tahs aren't short of wingers, props on the other hand id like to see $1.6m spent on. I still shake my head at the absolute carry on in the media and comments section around the boon of getting sua’ali’i and the revenue it'd generate. It was all such hogwash imo and short sighted, real sugar hit stuff. And wasnt Waugh (and others) on the board at the time this money was spent? You say silver bullet, I'd say sugar hit but without the flavour.
8 Go to commentsNZR should play hard all a bit with some of these players and make them sign up to the next world cup. If they won’t, offer it to someone who will. Because what happens is the NH (especially France) swoop on a bunch of nz players coming off contract, weakening their depth, and nz scrambles less than 2 years out trying to get replacements up to speed.
1 Go to commentsNo thanks. Savea almost always leaves easy points out there and goes for the corner, no matter how many times it’s not working. He claimed he took “the learnings” from this when he kept making the same mistake against the Boks a few years ago. Then went out the very next week and did the same thing and SA snatched victory because of it. Years later he still does it, right up to and including the world cup final. Great player, not so great rugby nous.
10 Go to commentsIt certainly wasn't a rhetorical masterpiece coming from big E …. (just as a side remark: Eben is the better player, Siya by far the better talker - maybe that's why they don't seem to like each other very much) …. but could we please move on?
63 Go to commentsMan who wasn't there and hasn't held a conversation with those who were present weighs in on dead rubber debate and is presented as representative of the Irish Rugby Union’s spokesperson on subject he has no apparent knowledge of whatsoever.
63 Go to commentsanybody who bends at the waist when they tackle
4 Go to commentsThe evidence is not strong that this is necessary. Mounga choked on clutch kicks in the WRC final and lost the match by not performing his core goal kicking role to the level required. He also choked in the Semi final against England and was targeted as the weak point in the defence allowing them to score. Not a test great frankly. Why bend the rules for a player that is competent but not brilliant at test level?
11 Go to commentsDear Robbie, Please return to the Crusaders next season. Sincerely, Scott
1 Go to commentsDid the big E call the Irish the ‘White Can’ts’? That would’ve been good
63 Go to commentsDalton Papalii will be lucky to be selected on the Matchday 23. Ardie Savea, Ethan Blackadder, Luke Jacobson, and Peter Lauki are all as good or better openside flankers
10 Go to commentsScott Barrett is a lock and they have a much longer shelf life than a loose forward. Far more likely that Barrett will still demand a starting position based on performance at age 33 at RWC 2027 than Savea, whose explosive athleticism will have declined and he will in all likelihood have been surpassed by Hoskins Sotutu, Wallace Siti, Peter Lauki and Brayden Iose.
10 Go to commentsExtremely frustrating to get yet more speculation over whether or not Eben actually counted 12 players or not, but honestly big respect to McCloskey for keeping it classy and not pointing out Etzebeth’s hypocrisy. The Irish are a popular team outside of Ireland because they do their talking on the pitch, and its honestly a PR masterclass that they’re keeping it that way following Etzebeth’s provocation.
63 Go to comments