Two outstanding scrum halves, both at the peak of their powers. One has recently secured a big-money move to a top club in France, the other is still playing in Scotland. The Six Nations is looming and the nation’s rugby supporters want to know which one will get the nod.
Ali Price and Greig Laidlaw, 2018? Well, yes, but wind the clock back ten years and the same situation prevailed at the beginning of 2008, when Mike Blair and Chris Cusiter were the protagonists. On a personal level their rivalry was friendly enough, but it divided opinions in rugby clubhouses across the country, where debates would rage over their respective merits.
If history is the final judge, Blair comes out ahead. He won 85 caps to Cusiter’s 71, and his starting ratio (58 per cent) was higher than Cusiter’s (51 per cent) as well. Yet even if he finished comfortably ahead in the record books, it never seemed that way at ground level when the competition between the pair was in full swing. For every Scot who preferred Blair’s classically smooth style of play, there was another who favoured Cusiter’s terrier-like approach.
All of which makes it rather ironic that Blair, now a member of the Scotland coaching team, will probably hold the casting vote when the decision is made on whether Price or Laidlaw should be in the starting XV for the Scots when they kick off the Six Nations against Wales in Cardiff on Saturday. Laidlaw is the consummate game manager, as he showed in last season’s tournament opener against Ireland, but Price has the pace and alacrity that seems more suited to Gregor Townsend’s avowed aim to make Scotland the fastest Test side on earth.
Or is that stark distinction too simple? Blair seems to think so. Where the saloon-bar analysts see chalk and cheese, Blair, who can actually claim a degree of expertise in the subject, sees two players whose skill sets are more aligned than many think.
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“The pair can be interchangeable,” Blair replied when asked which would be better suited to start and which to cover from the bench. “Those two are very confident in their own abilities. We have a way that we want to play and that fits with us and I think the players we have can fit into those roles.
“With Greig, you’ve got the goalkicking and that game management whereas, with Ali, you have the speed and tempo he can bring, but both can do each others’ jobs as well. Nine can be a fairly simple position. If you do your basics well and have a couple of little add-ons then you are adding value to the team.”
Having been out for three months with a broken fibula, Laidlaw only returned to action the weekend before last, with a six-minute cameo off the bench in Clermont Auvergne’s Champions Cup win against Ospreys. However, he put in a full 80-minute shift two days ago against Montpellier and contributed 19 points — two conversions and five penalties — in their 30-29 loss to Vern Cotter’s side.
Moreover, Blair was impressed not only by the fitness of his former team-mate — they were together at Edinburgh for a number of seasons — but by the improvements in his game. “Watching that, it hit home how good his footwork now is,” Blair said. “He is not taking extra steps with the ball, so he is able to whip it away. That has changed massively from his time at the start with Edinburgh. His game has moved on a lot. A lot of it is natural talent but a lot is that is his ability to work on his game.”
So the old head — Laidlaw is now 32 — will get the nod in front of the 24-year-old tyro Price? It’s not that easy. For while Price, who won his first cap as a replacement for Laidlaw in the 2016 autumn international against Georgia, is known for his speed off the mark against broken defences, Blair believes his ability to run a game has come on massively over the past couple of years.
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Blair said: “His kicking game is the thing that has improved the most. I remember talking to him two and a half years ago, telling him that the main aim was to make his worst kick not as bad as a one out of ten, but to make his worst kick a five out of ten. Now we have that, let us make every kick a nine or ten. That is something he has worked really hard on. His pace is great and he brings a running threat around the breakdown and has genuine speed.”
Of course, Price has an advantage as the man in possession. He took over from the injured Laidlaw in the Six Nations game against France last year and has been head coach Townsend’s first-choice scrum half ever since. Over the past 15 months, he has won 11 caps in total, but the most telling statistic is that his eight starts have produced six wins for Scotland. Townsend will be showing a lot of faith in Laidlaw’s wider abilities if the younger man is dislodged.
So does form or experience count? And what if a player has both on his side? “There is no strict law in what we do,” Blair said. “Form is important, but so is how people fitted into the environment and how they played in autumn, showing they could play at that level. I don’t think you can have one rule for all.”
● John Hardie’s prospects of a return to Scotland action in the Natwest Six Nations are remote after the Edinburgh flanker suffered an injury which required surgery early on in his return to action for Hawick in their BT Premiership game against Boroughmuir at Mansfield Park.
He was taken to St John’s Hospital in Livingston for plastic surgery after he suffered a cut to his upper lip 13 minutes into the fixture. A Hawick spokesperson confirmed that there had been a clash of heads. Hardie had hoped to prove his readiness for a Six Nations return.