When asked during the week why Scotland’s record in this fixture is so woeful, Sutherland opted to circumnavigate rather than answer it directly – perhaps the real reason was not something he wanted to share – but he settled for something usable: “I think there is a little bit of added spice there because it’s them,” before adding, with delightful understatement: “We’ve fallen short a couple of times …”.
No one was going to take a circa 120kg prop through chapter and verse of the sorrowful mysteries because it’s not that hard to understand: Ireland and Scotland set off on different journeys in opposite directions in the 21st century and they are reflected in 26 wins to six in Ireland’s favour since then.
His role in issuing national contracts in Ireland was sometimes contentious, but despite Peter O’Mahony’s downgrading, the Munster back-rower is still scrapping away, nearly a year and a half after reaching the 100-cap mark, coincidentally against Scotland, at the last World Cup.
Scotland: B Kinghorn; D Graham, H Jones, T Jordan, D Van der Merwe; F Russell, B White; R Sutherland, D Cherry, Z Fagerson, J Gray, G Gilchrist, M Fagerson, R Darge, J Dempsey.
“With Pete, we spoke before the England week and having come into camp with a little bit less rugby under his belt we felt that he needed another week to work on a little bit of conditioning,” he said.
