'Conditions will be difficult as it’s going to be around 30°C'
Richie Gray is savouring every moment of the Rugby World Cup build-up after re-establishing himself as a key player in the Scotland squad. The Glasgow lock only made three international appearances between 2017 and the start of last season, partly because of injuries and family commitment, but has since shown his worth to Gregor Townsend after earning back his place.
The 33-year-old could win his 75th cap in Scotland’s warm-up game against World Cup hosts France in Saint-Etienne on Saturday and the former Castres and Toulouse man would relish the chance to return to his former home country next month.
“It would be great,” he said. “Obviously I missed the last one and this one is back in France where I have spent a lot of time, so I would be quite chuffed.
“It’s about appreciating the moments and being together with the boys with a chance to have a crack at another World Cup in France, which is a great place to play rugby. So I appreciate that a lot.
“At club games, you get 20-25,000 every week, so having the World Cup in France will be pretty special. We will see full stadiums with a great atmosphere both in the stadiums and outside. It will be an enjoyable one.”
Scotland beat France 25-21 in Edinburgh last weekend, but Gray expects a stronger French side to line up on Saturday and believes the game will be a good marker. “It will show us where we are at,” he said. “I’m not sure what French team they will put out, but they will want to start with a bang.
“Conditions will be difficult compared to what we have been training in as it’s going to be around 30°C and they will also have the French crowd behind them. So it’s a good stepping stone for us and we want to continue to build momentum.”
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Some interesting stats that just proved what my first impression of NZ’s drive to speed up Rugby Union would amount to - fine margins here and there to cut a few seconds off the game and nothing else. To do more there would have to be wholesale changes to the game like doing away with scrums, lineouts and bringing back the ELV’s to have free kicks instead of penalties. Very little chance of it happening but, in the end, Ruby Union would be a 15-man version of Rugby League. There are reasons why Rugby Union is globally more popular that Rugby League and what NZ are also not considering is the unintended consequences of what they want to achieve. This will end up turning Rugby Union into a low value product that will not be acceptable to the paying public. If people really wanted a sped-up version of rugby, then why is Rugby Union globally way more popular than Rugby League? Rugby lovers all over the world are also not stupid and have seen through what NZ are trying to achieve here, selfishly to bring back their glory days of dominance over every other nation and compete with Rugby League that is dominant in Australasia. NH countries just don’t have the cattle, or the fantastic weather needed to play like NZ SR franchises do so good luck to whoever has to try and convince the NH to accept going back to the days of NZ dominance and agreeing to wreck the game in the process. I have serious doubts on the validity of the TV stats presented by GP. All they did was expand the broadcasting base by putting it on free to air, not even any indication of arresting the continued drop in viewership. Match day attendance goes hand in hand with broadcast ratings so if there was an increase in the one you should expect to see it with the other. However, the drop in match day attendance is very evident to the casual highlights package viewer. The only club who looks to be getting solid attendance is the Drua. I am calling it now that NZ’s quest to speed up the game will fail and so will the vote on the 20-minute red card.
Go to commentsIt’s a good, timely wake up call for NZ Rugby (seem to be a few of them lately!) - sort out the bureaucratic nonsense at board level. We can’t expect to stay the number one option without keeping fans/players engaged. We’ve obviously been bleeding players to league for years but can’t let the floodgates open (although I think this headline is hyperbolic as it’s a result of a recent Warriors pathways system where they are tracking things more closely) Understand the need to focus boys on rugby if they’re at a proud rugby school too, don’t think it’s harsh at all re Barakat in Hamilton. Reward the committed players with squad positions. An elite 1st XV system in NZ has done more for league than they even realise, think it’s good to protect our game further.
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