The view on Scotland from London runs from to lucky-to-be -here to bleak. Condemned they sit in the ante room of Surrey Sports Park, waiting for the tumbrel ride to Twickenham on Sunday. The only refuge from downbeat views on Scottish hopes against Australia is around the team itself.
There’s an invisible wall of negativity that may well work in their favour, galvanise a written-off squad. Proving the world wrong is one of the enduring themes of sport. But even the words that keep coming out, ‘underdog’ and ‘tough assignment’ seem to underplay Scotland’s task against the form side in the tournament.
Concrete goal
They find faith where they can. Defeating Samoa may have seemed modest but it was a concrete goal achieved. The fear of failure vanished. In its place,
Tommy Seymour
speaks less of the Australian terror and more of belief in Scotland.
"We came off the back of a Six Nations that we weren't happy with and we'd gone through the warm-ups in the last two or three months and the pool stages and we've collected a few wins and that breeds confidence," he says, "The belief comes from winning games. That's a simple matter. There's no substitute for it."
Born in the USA, his nine years there may have infused Seymour with that indefatigable American optimism. His travels also took him to Dubai and Tyrella parish in County Down, where his stint with Ulster rugby was low-key frustrated. Scotland has been kinder to the winger's career.
“I suppose I’m a bit of a mutt,” he says in an odd mix of accents. Like the rest of the Scottish squad he’s not blind to the task. But they have built a street scrapper reputation for themselves and if they do get a bloodied nose from the aristocratic Aussies, it won’t be without heroic effort.
“It wasn’t the way we wanted to win the game against Samoa,” says Seymour. “We weren’t at the races for portions of that game but certainly there was a large amount of character shown.
“They went out to dismantle us and did that in some portions. We weren’t totally there but we were pleased to get the result. I don’t know what other teams think but it’s irrelevant. We know what strings we have to our bow.”
Three matches
Scotland beat Italy twice and lost to
Ireland
and France in their summer warm-up matches. Since the last
World Cup
they have won only three matches in the Six Nations Championship, two against Italy and once against Ireland.
Now they face the the tempo and breakdown Australia bring, the speed of their backline, their new scrum and their defence. The Aussies have conceded only one try so far.
“It would be pointless for us to go into a game where we didn’t believe we could break the defence down,” says the 27-year-old. “I certainly think we have the players to do so. We’ve scored tries in the competition so far, so there’s no reason why we can’t. I’m confident we have the players to do so.”
He says they learned from Samoa, although, they been prone to sluggish starts, something they can ill afford against Cheika's side. Scotland's Resources coach and former Leinster lock, Nathan Hines, knows how Cheika builds a team and inspires loyalty. But Seymour prefers to focus on what Scotland can bring to the table.
“The way professional sport works is if you don’t get the results doubters come in and want to have their say,” he says.
“You can’t throw it back in their face because results are down there in black and white. There’s no ambiguity. We regrouped relatively quickly and said what’s in the past is in the past...start stepping up to the mark and show people what we’ve been talking about.”
Braveheart talk. But if Greig Laidlaw kicks a few early ones, momentum shifts or Australia blink, belief could play its part.
