All Blacks coach Steve Hansen having delivered a parting shot in challenging them to back up their performance against his side, Scotland have recalled a player who was brought up in the same unforgiving Kiwi rugby culture.
Sean Maitland, a native New Zealander who switched allegiance five years ago when he joined Glasgow Warriors, was either unable or unwilling to put his finger on why, as his erstwhile compatriot alluded to, he and his team-mates have found it so difficult to lift themselves for two successive matches, however.
“Obviously when you’ve reached that intensity against the best team in the world and come so close I guess people say there’s that expectation that you have to maintain that level and we know that,” he mused. “We don’t want to be remembered as having come so close, starting slow against Samoa and then nearly beating the best team in the world, we don’t want to take our foot off the throat and not reach that level against Australia. We don’t want to be that sort of team.”
They have been to this point, though and Saturday’s meeting with this represents the last chance in a year that has seen them claim some fine wins over Ireland, Wales and Australia, but also suffered some disappointing and even embarrassing defeats at the hands of England and Fiji.
Recalled to the camp only at the weekend, after proving he has fully recovered from an ankle injury in Saturday’s outing for his club Saracens, the winger is enjoying the way they are trying to maintain their levels.
“A lot more is done at high speed. There’s no sort of dead time,” he said of the way they are training. “The session’s been planned in terms of how long each task is done, but it’s just that everything is done at high speed really, which is great because we want to play some fast rugby and the only way to do it is to train like that.”
On a personal basis he is looking forward to returning to the Test arena.
“It was great to get 80 minutes under my belt last week v Gloucester and I am very excited to be starting,” said Maitland.“Obviously I haven’t played Test match rugby since the 6 Nations and I missed the summer tour, but I am excited. Australia v Scotland matches are always tight.”
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