Scotland flanker Rory Darge hails France trips as Rugby World Cup taster ‘whets the appetite’

Scotland flanker Rory Darge has hailed his side’s two visits to France as being “huge” for their preparation for the Rugby World Cup, which starts next month.

Incredibly the Scots are the only team to have spent time in the host nation before the tournament kicks off, as they have acclimatised to the hot conditions.

They stayed at their Rugby World Cup training base near Nice in late June, and returned there last week for four days to further acclimatise and familiarise themselves with the facilities and surrounding area before travelling north to Saint-Etienne for Saturday’s agonising 30-27 defeat against a star-studded Les Bleus.

Ideal preparations

Darge, who was excellent in that recent clash with France, is pleased the side has enjoyed these stints in France ahead of their return to Nice on September 3.

“It’s been huge in terms of our preparations; it’s been ideal,” said the flanker.

“We’ve been in Nice before in the hotel that we’re going to be staying in at the World Cup, so it’s nice to get into the routine of it in terms of knowing what it looks like, getting the bus to training and back etc.

“We’ve been getting into the routine of what a match week will look like when we’re back out for the World Cup.

“The heat is a big factor as well, so we’ve been trying to get used to that as much as we can.”

It hasn’t just been the training sessions and weather that has benefitted Scotland, as they also played at a World Cup venue in Stade Geoffroy-Guichard on Saturday.

“It was a special atmosphere, unbelievable,” Darge admitted. “You couldn’t hear much in the warm-up, and then the anthems, as always, were unbelievable.

“Even at the start of the game (when Scotland were on top), the atmosphere didn’t die away. It was special to play in.

“It definitely whets the appetite to come back out and play more games in stadiums like this at the World Cup. We’ll not be up against a home crowd like that (in the group games), but I’m sure the atmosphere at the games will still be special.”

Although Scotland could not back up their home win over France a fortnight ago, Darge believes they can take positives from their fightback in the 30-27 defeat.

“We were gutted we didn’t get a result, but at the same time, we had a much better performance in the first half (than in the match at home to the French the previous weekend),” he said.

“We talked a lot in the week building up to it about starting well.

🗣️ "There's so much more to come from this team." #RWC2023

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— Planet Rugby (@PlanetRugby) August 13, 2023

“For a lot of the second half, we were good as well, it was just that little period at the start of the second half when they got two quick tries. That five minutes at the start of the second is what we’ll look at most from the performance.”

Impressive comeback

While that spell was disappointing for Gregor Townsend’s men, they will no doubt be pleased with how they fought back from 27-10 down to level matters at 27-27.

“It’s a weird one, it’s just a feeling you get,” said Darge, when asked about their comeback.

“We were obviously saying all the same messages we’ve said in the past, like ‘let’s just focus on this moment’ and deal with the next job, that kind of mindset.

“And, yeah, we did that and we gave ourselves a chance to win the game towards the end.

“We will take confidence from it. Obviously, they’re one of the best sides in the world, and we were in a pretty hostile environment, but we went straight at them from the start. We can definitely take positives from it.”

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