Richie Gray issues ruck discipline warning as he targets a third World Cup with Scotland

If Scotland needed a reminder of the importance of discipline at the forthcoming Rugby World Cup then they got it at Murrayfield last weekend.

Richie Gray leaps highest to win the ball for Scotland during the 25-21 victory over France in the World Cup warm-up at Murrayfield. (Photo by David Gibson/Fotosport/Shutterstock)

A red card for Zander Fagerson early in the second half didn’t derail the home side’s comeback against France but it did lead to a nervous few days sweating on the outcome of the prop’s disciplinary hearing. Happily for Scotland, Fagerson was treated relatively leniently. He was issued with a three-game ban which will be reduced to two once he completes a ‘coaching intervention programme’, freeing him up to face South Africa in the Pool B World Cup opener in Marseille one month from today.

Fagerson’s offence was to catch France hooker Pierre Bourgarit high at a ruck clear-out, and Richie Gray believes it’s an area of the game in which Scotland will need to be squeaky clean, starting with this Saturday’s rematch with the French in Saint-Étienne. “I think there’s a bigger emphasis going into this game about how we’ve got to manage ourselves going into a ruck, get your feet right, and the big thing for us is driving not diving,” said Gray. “But it’s hard. Zander’s card was 45-50 minutes into a Test match, fatigue starts to creep in and you’ve got a moving target and it comes down to around 0.1 of a second. It’s certainly not easy, but from what I’ve seen from Zander he was trying to move his feet, trying to get into a good position, and it was just an unfortunate rugby incident. It’s one of these things and we keep working on it. We talk about it a lot, how discipline and cards are coming into the game more and more, and the team who can stay the most disciplined is usually winning.”

That wasn’t the case last weekend as 14-man Scotland added two more tries to the one they’d scored early in the second half to turn around a 3-21 half-time deficit to win 25-21. Nonetheless, the point Gray makes is valid. The consequences could have been worse, a salutary lesson ahead of the World Cup. Fagerson felt he had let the side down but was quickly consoled by team-mates. “He’s fine,” reported Gray. “You know Zander, he’s always in good fettle. Obviously he’s pretty gutted and he put his hand up after the game and apologised in the huddle. But it’s one of those things. It happens in rugby and nobody’s pointing the finger at him.”

Gray is now the most capped player in the squad following Stuart Hogg’s retirement and the second-row will make his 75th Scotland appearance if selected in Saint-Étienne. Having played in the World Cups of 2011 and 2015, the 33-year-old is preparing to return to the biggest stage after an eight-year absence, and it would be all the more poignant given his spells in France with Castres and Toulouse. “It would be great,” he said. “Obviously I missed the last one and this one’s back in France where I’ve spent a lot of time. So I would be quite chuffed. I think 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.”