De Luca convinced Scots squad are on verge of doing ‘something special’

Nick de Luca believes the Scotland squad are on the cusp of achieving “something special” as they prepare for their first outing of the Rugby World Cup. If the Edinburgh centre’s prediction comes true and they do excel themselves in the tournament, he thinks a lot of it could be down to the live practice session they held with Canada last Friday.

It is unusual to train with another international side so close to a tournament, but once Scotland coach Andy Robinson was made aware the Canadians were based not far from his own squad in Australia, he did not hesitate in arranging the joint exercise. The two packs worked together on live scrums and lineouts, the backs trained together too, and then there was a full-scale match.

Both sides held back at the breakdown in that game, but it was nonetheless a rare opportunity to finesse moves in attack and defence, and left De Luca, for one, convinced it had been of great benefit.

“We’re growing as a squad and there’s a feeling we can do something special,” the Edinburgh centre said. “The value of that session can’t be underestimated. We were able to try out moves against opposition who had not seen them before, whereas when we play 15 versus 15 within the squad all the players know the moves. And vice versa too – we didn’t know what they were going to throw at us, which was a test. But we came out on top.”

Attack coach Gregor Townsend agreed the exercise had been a very useful venture. “It happens in sevens tournaments a lot more, when you have to get over jetlag, and our under-20s played a full match against the Australians just before their World Cup, but it doesn’t happen too often at this level,” he explained.

“I wouldn’t think any teams would be doing it in New Zealand, because the other countries based close enough to them are likely to be their opponents in the Pool. We made contact with Canada a couple of months ago. It’s unlikely we’ll meet them at the World Cup, and both teams thought a joint training session would be useful.”

The entire squad were given a clean bill of health following the session against Canada, and all 30 players will be available for selection for the Rugby World Cup opener against Romania. The team for Saturday’s Pool B game will be announced on Thursday, with the players themselves being told before they fly into New Zealand from their base in Australia the previous day.

De Luca said everyone was desperate to be involved. “Everybody wants to start – you want to start every game,” he said. “I’ll be devastated if I’m not involved against Romania, but I’ll have to speak to the coaches about it and find out the reason why.

“I’m a firm believer in picking a side to beat your opponents, not necessarily your best XV. The Romania and Georgia games are must-wins and should-wins. But the coaches have given no indication if they will pick their strongest side for one or both matches, or how many changes they will make from Romania to Georgia, so we’re in the dark.”

De Luca insisted he was only interested in one jersey – the No 13 – and hinted he would most like to be there with Graeme Morrison alongside him at inside centre.

“Graeme and I have only had a handful of games together, but we are undefeated together. I’d hope not to have Joe Ansbro or Max Evans beside me, because I want to play 13, not 12. I’ll leave Graeme and Sean Lamont to play for that.”