Romania’s plan to target our scrum has fired us up

MOTIVATION is a big factor for me. I always like to pack a few motivating gems ahead of any game, and this week it has not been difficult to find them.

Preparing for our first game in the World Cup after three months and more of thinking, preparing, planning, pushing, training and winning selection is the obvious motivation for everyone, and captaining the team and playing in my first World Cup game is great motivation personally to make it a day to remember.

The work we have done cannot be underestimated. The length of time we have been training for our opening match is something you don’t do for any other game – but every other team is doing it too and what’s crucial for me is that we don’t get carried away with what we’ve done on the training park. It’s all about performing in the game now.

The fact that the Romanian coach Steve McDowall has come out and said that he is going to target our scrum is great. I’ll be putting that in Chunk [Allan Jacobsen] and Geoff’s ears. I like that, when someone from the other camp says things that they might feel can wind you up. I find that it helps us more than anything else.

The scrum is a big part of the game and it’s not just about the tighthead prop or the front row, but about the whole pack. I love it when energy comes back in our scrum, the front row enthuses the second row and so on, and we’ve got that in our pack.

I’ve played many games behind Chunk and he has the attitude that whoever is in front of him it doesn’t matter who they are – he has Paulica Ion from London Irish this time around – he will hit them harder than they will hit him, and we’ll see that on Saturday no doubt.

We have had a great build-up and feel ready. The guys have all been talking about the friendliness that has greeted us since we arrived in New Zealand, although that is a slightly strange concept when you think back to the Maori war challenge that greeted me and our coach Andy Robinson when we got to the bottom of the steps in Invercargill Airport.

It was a great moment. People keep asking me what I thought of it and I’ve struggled to find the right words. It was in its way both inspiring and humbling for them to want to come out and share their passion and culture with us. The whole welcome to Invercargill was humbling, with the number of people that packed into the airport and the amount of tartan and kilts kicking about, the proud Scots, pipers and the local Maori people and dignitaries. I’d like to say a heartfelt thank-you to all who came out to welcome us because it created a real buzz in the camp.

We have been thinking about New Zealand and looking forward to getting here for a long, long time, but the focus has been on the game, and I hadn’t really thought about the welcome and the people. We walked down to training today and the amount of people peeping their horns and stopping to speak was at fever pitch, and then we had the official welcome at the Marae at Bluff, the cap presentation and Kelly Brown’s great singing, which was an amazing event. And we’ve even had lovely Scottish-style sunny and crisp days since we got here.

What is interesting for is how that might translate for the squad, and how it might help us perform. It certainly does make a positive impact on me because it makes you feel comfortable, supported and less nervous about the environment you’re stepping into.

While it is difficult to pinpoint why exactly, there is no doubt that playing at home generally leads to better performances than playing in an unfamiliar place. We’ve been here just two days and it already has a home feel about it.

It is not difficult to switch off from all the fanfare and concentrate on the game now, though. I spoke in The Scotsman last week about narrowing our focus gradually and now we’re here the focus is very narrow indeed. Yes, there has been a lot going on in the build-up and during our arrival, but it’s all about the game, and even the media and locals are all now talking about the game. We will nail things at the team run and that brings the game heads on.

We need to get off to a good start. We know how important that is. There is always chat before big tournaments about world rankings now, but world rankings mean absolutely nothing in the first 20 minutes of a game. What matters is how we perform from the first whistle, how we cope with the full frontal assault we expect from Romania in the first quarter, how we put our game together and how they cope with us.

The final thing I want to mention before our first game is how delighted we are for Chris Paterson appearing in his fourth World Cup, which is a fantastic tribute to one of Scotland’s greatest-ever players, and also for Ross Ford, who makes his 50th appearance for his country today.

For a man of such size and stature, Ross is relatively quiet-spoken, but you don’t get a better team man. He does whatever is necessary to benefit the team and is getting better and better with every game. I’ll speak to him about whether he wants to run out first against Romania – and I’m happy for him to do so on his 50th, but it’s up to him whether he wants to.

Also, I will be speaking to supporters on Sunday through a live SRU website link so log on and let me know your thoughts on the start. We will do everything in our power to make it a good one.