Scotland hire former Olympics psychologist for next four matches - 'we want to provide as much support'

Townsend explains why Thom has been brought in for next tranche of matches

Gregor Townsend has hired the British Olympic team’s lead psychologist to work with his Scotland squad during the autumn international series.

Jess Thom, a former competitive figure skater, deployed a number of mental strategies to help athletes cope with the pressure of competing at the Paris 2024 Games and is now turning her attention to rugby.

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Scotland will play four Test matches at Murrayfield next month, the highlight of which is the game against the world champions, South Africa, who the Scots have not beaten since 2010. The series opens against Fiji on Saturday and continues with the visits of the Springboks on November 10, Portugal on November 16 and Australia on November 24.

The need for Scotland to be mentally stronger was something that was highlighted by Finn Russell at the end of last season’s Six Nations. Russell, who was co-captain with Rory Darge at the time, called for more consistency after a campaign in which they beat Wales and England but lost to France, Italy and Ireland.

Gregor Townsend wants to support his players as much as possible.Gregor Townsend wants to support his players as much as possible.
Gregor Townsend wants to support his players as much as possible. | SNS Group

The squad have worked previously with Aaron Walsh, an experienced mental skills coach from New Zealand, but have now turned to Thom.

“Jess Thom who was head of sports psychology for the GB Olympics team is working with us throughout this period,” said Townsend, who has appointed Sione Tuipulotu as Scotland’s new captain, with Russell and Darge now vice-captains.

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“It is an area that we want to provide as much support as we can for our players and there may be other people we involve in these four weeks and we want the players driving it too and they have, they have made a lot of progress through Aaron’s work and through their own experiences too.

“So while we will have expertise around us as coaches and as players it is important that the likes of Sione and the other leaders drive that just as much as practitioners and us as coaches.”

The Paris Games were Thom’s third Olympics with Team GB after working at Tokyo 2020 and the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing. She was seconded from the UK Sports Institute and has also worked with clubs in rugby and football including Wasps, Southampton, Bristol City and Wycombe Wanderers.

After retiring from skating she became a semi-professional freestyle skier. She is now a chartered sport psychologist and was personally mentored by Professor Steve Peters, the esteemed consultant psychiatrist whose clients have included Sir Chris Hoy, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Steven Gerrard and Victoria Pendleton.

South Africa are one of four teams Scotland will face next month.South Africa are one of four teams Scotland will face next month.
South Africa are one of four teams Scotland will face next month. | SNS Group

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Thom said it has taken time for many within sport to fully understand the purpose of working with psychologists

“Yes… it's taken a long time for us as a profession to get the message across that we're not here to fix problems,” she said in an interview with the British Psychological Society's magazine, The Psychologist, earlier this year. “We're not here because there's something broken in you or something wrong with you. We're actually here to enhance your performance and work with what is already working and make it even better.”

One of the techniques she used at the Olympics to help athletes deal with negative thoughts was to give them a name.

“We all have that voice that is there beating us up that might not be helpful on competition day,” Thom told the Guardian. “To take the power out of those impostor syndrome thoughts, I tell athletes to give them a name.

“Frank’s my go-to. I’m like ‘Thanks Frank, but not right now.’ It just diffuses the power. Athletes love it.”

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