Glasgow forward on why Scotland find it so 'bloody tough' to win the Six Nations

Annual championship almost as difficult to win as Rugby World Cup, says Dempsey

Jack Dempsey believes Scotland face almost as difficult a task to win the Six Nations as they would to lift the World Cup as he urged the national side to shake off their “Jekyll and Hyde” identity.

Gregor Townsend’s side are on course for another mid-table finish in this year’s championship which will reach its conclusion on Saturday night against title-chasing France in Paris.

Scotland have won two and lost two so far across a Six Nations campaign in which they have played some scintillating rugby but also displayed a worrying tendency to drop out of matches. They have beaten Italy and Wales but lost to Ireland and England, the latter by a single point after missing a last-gasp conversion.

Scotland's Jack Dempsey is tackled by Wales' Ben Thomas during the Guinness Six Nations match at Murrayfield. | PA

Dempsey tasted success with Glasgow Warriors last season when he was part of the side which won the United Rugby Championship, beating the best sides from South Africa and Ireland. The No 8 said things fell into place for Glasgow and they seized their opportunity. He would love to see Scotland do the same but stressed how tough the Six Nations was.

“No matter what sport you're playing, there's always an element of luck,” said Dempsey who has started all four of Scotland’s Six Nations games. “Luck of injuries, luck of form. We're talking about Glasgow last year, we had pretty much no injuries. Everyone was coming into form. We hit form at the right time as well.

“There's always a belief. That's what builds over months. That's what builds over seasons. That's the thing you've got to have, for sure. Belief in each other, belief in the system, belief in the game plan. That's something that definitely exists here. The biggest thing is, we all know, there's always been the narrative the last 18 months, two years, is always that complete performance. It's the Jekyll and Hyde of us at the moment. Not only game-to-game, but week-to-week. That's what we're striving to find all the time.

“It's about lifting that floor, because we know our ceiling is, if we play higher, we can play with any team in the world. Will the time come? The time is now. The time has been for the last two or three years, but you've got to nail it all. I don’t want to give a crazy quote, but it is almost harder to win than a World Cup, in some elements, because you've only got one chance at it.

“You look at South Africa, they've lost a game in both World Cups [2019 and 2023], but they get to the quarters and then they go all the way. None of that exists in Six Nations. You've got to win every game, and you've got to get bonus points. That's it.

“It's bloody tough to win a Six Nations, and that's why Ireland, who are on the verge of winning three, you've got to tip your hat to stuff like that and you've got to look at why they've been able to do it.”

Jack Dempsey during a Scotland training session at the Oriam. | SNS Group / SRU

Dempsey admitted that the way Scotland fell away against Wales on Saturday “robbed ourselves of that real winning feeling”. The Scots led 35-8 but conceded three tries in the final quarter, making the final score 35-29. He said he was unsure how much of it was down to tactical mistakes and how much of it was “mental drift”.

“You've got to know your role, and you've got to do it when you're 78 minutes in, fatigued as well, even when we know the game's won,” he said. “You go up 35-8, the game's won. We've done enough to win the game. No matter where you are, what level you're playing at, there's always going to be that mystery of why teams let other teams in. Even when I started at Glasgow, we had that exact same thing. We'd start off quick and then let other teams in. Maybe it's fitness, maybe it's mental. It's the chicken and the egg, isn't it? But it is what it is. You've got to keep learning, you've got to keep getting better.”

He warned that any such lapses in Paris would be ruthlessly punished by France.

“We know if we have mental lapses in our game, we looked at that try that got disallowed by Wales, Faletau ended up scoring it, that's a prime example of where France will kill you. And they'll do it five to eight times again, not once.”