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Rory Darge on why the Boks aren't quite as scary as they once were

By PA
Rory Darge of Scotland clashes with Damian de Allende of South Africa during the Rugby World Cup France 2023 match between South Africa and Scotland at Stade Velodrome on September 10, 2023 in Marseille, France. (Photo by Michael Steele - World Rugby/World Rugby via Getty Images)

Rory Darge believes Glasgow’s United Rugby Championship success last season can have a positive effect on Scotland’s mindset as they bid to topple world champions South Africa at Murrayfield on Sunday.

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The back-rower was one of several members of Gregor Townsend’s squad who played for Warriors when they pulled off their historic URC final triumph over the Bulls in Pretoria in June.

Scotland full-back Blair Kinghorn also enjoyed notable success last term as part of the Toulouse squad that won a Top 14 and Champions Cup double.

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Darge believes that, in addition to having faced the Springboks at the World Cup 14 months ago, such lofty accomplishments at club level have given the Scotland players a renewed sense of confidence for facing formidable challenges like the one coming their way on Sunday.

“It is a good thing that we’ve had the experience of playing South Africa,” said the 24-year-old.

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“A lot of the group have had the experience of playing them now, so I have a bit of a better idea of what’s coming.

“The other thing that helps is the sort of form that the players in this group have been in away from here. The results they’ve got and obviously the club’s successes and the form that we’ve been in with Scotland as well means that we’ll go into it with a bit of belief.

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“It gives you a bit of belief that you can go out and win those big games (at club level). It’s not just Glasgow, obviously Blair coming out with experience of winning the double, and others. That definitely has an impact.”

Darge is relishing the chance to face South Africa although he is mindful of the fact they restricted the Scots to their lowest-scoring outing of the past five years in an 18-3 triumph in Marseille in September 2023.

“You’re always excited to play for Scotland and nerves come into it a little bit, but it’s mainly excitement,” said Darge, looking towards Sunday’s match.

“It’s an opportunity to play the two-time world champions. Everyone came in on Monday just excited to get into it.

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Ulster <a href=
Glasgow Warriors” width=”1911″ height=”1080″ class=”size-full wp-image-385241″ /> September 2024; Jude Postlethwaite of Ulster is tackled by Tom Jordan, left, and Rory Darge of Glasgow Warriors during the United Rugby Championship match between Ulster and Glasgow Warriors at The Kingspan Stadium in Belfast. (Photo By Ben McShane/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

“It was obviously a really tough game 14 months ago. The way they play against you puts you under a lot of pressure, and tests your skills.

“I think we learnt a lot from that game, we’ll refer to it a little bit this week but both us and them have played a lot of rugby since then, so we’ll not spend too much time on it.”

Darge was co-captain of Scotland along with Finn Russell for this year’s Six Nations but the back-rower has now reverted to being a vice-captain after his Glasgow team-mate Sione Tuipulotu was promoted to the role of skipper last month.

“It’s been grand,” he said of the leadership change.

“Me and Sione are obviously good mates, played a lot of rugby together over the last few years and I think he’ll do a really good job.

“He’s always been one of the main leaders in our team. Anything that I can do to support him, I’ll do.”

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Comments

8 Comments
A
AS 12 days ago

Well RE should use this as motivation, as it's a thinly veiled dis.

S
SK 13 days ago

Big difference between URC and the Springboks. Half of this lot play their rugby outside of SA and then come back to play for the Boks. Some SA players even play for Scotland and probably speak better Afrikaans than English.

H
Hellhound 13 days ago

Sounds more like trying to convince himself that Saturday won't be a slaughterhouse. Good luck to them. I hope they give the Boks a bit of a challenge or else the Boks will get complacent. I give it to the Boks with a winning margin of 15 - 20 points

J
Jacque 13 days ago

Good Luck on Sunday, Rory👌

B
BPG 13 days ago

Yeah the Boks are not that scary to play. If Glasgow can almost beat a Sharks team full of Boks. The Boks are a known quantity now.

D
DA 13 days ago

well get your team of Bok imports to stand up and fight. You still will not win.

B
Bull Shark 13 days ago

The boks have been a known quantity to Scotland for 118 years. And have still only managed just 5 wins. 2 wins in 30 years, the professional era.


The boks certainly wont be complacent - but a victory for Scotland is very wishful thinking.

J
Jacque 13 days ago

🦧

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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