For Stuart Hogg, this Six Nations campaign is fast becoming akin to one of those anniversary tours that bands like to indulge in – a reminder of former glories, a chance to wallow in the nostalgia of early triumphs and faded youth. England’s visit to Murrayfield last weekend prompted reminders of the night Hogg’s thrilling talent was revealed with a stunning try in an A international. On Saturday it will be 10 years to the day since he made his Test debut as a replacement against Wales in Cardiff. In a fortnight, when France come to Edinburgh, exactly a decade will have passed since his first start against the same opposition.
Except for the Scotland captain, it is hardly a greatest hits tour. His first four Six Nations Championship matches ended in defeat and if Hogg is still “living the dream” 10 years on from his debut as a 19-year-old, the career of one of Scotland’s greatest players still awaits a defining moment, a collective triumph to crown what has been a fine body of individual work.
Pre-tournament optimism has risen further after that opening win over England, but Scotland’s miserable record in Cardiff should temper any hint of complacency. Hogg has lost on all four of his visits and has been part of a run of 10 successive failures in the Welsh capital since their last win in 2002.
The nadir was 2014 when Hogg was sent off after 22 minutes for a late hit on Dan Biggar or, as he puts it, “a bit of a brain fart and a huge amount of built-up emotion executed in the wrong way”. Trailing 10-3 at the time with 14 men, Scotland capitulated to a record 51-3 defeat.
“I have grown up a lot since then,” says the 29-year-old. “Selfishly it is probably the best thing that ever happened to me. It was horrible at the time, but it was making of the man that weekend.”
A naturally exuberant character, it is not in Hogg’s nature to dwell on the past, especially when the present holds so much promise. This year the thousands of Scots for whom the trip to Cardiff is one of the great Six Nations traditions – Hogg’s brother was among those piling on to buses leaving his native Hawick on Thursday – are travelling not just in hope, but expectation.
Remarkably, for a team that only won seven away games – five of them in Rome – in the first 20 years of the Six Nations, victory on Saturdaytoday would be a fifth in a row on the road in the Championship.
The caveat to that spectacular uplift is that the last three – in Llanelli, Twickenham and Paris – have all been achieved in empty arenas during the Covid pandemic. A raucous, pumped-up Principality Stadium, where Scotland were crushed 34-7 on their last visit in 2018, is another prospect entirely.
“It’s completely different because we are going to be playing in one of the most hostile venues in world rugby,” Hogg acknowledged. “I’ve told the boys this week that if they’ve not been fortunate enough to play there yet, they’re going to get their eyes opened. It’s just one hell of an atmosphere.”
Four players in the starting XV – Duhan van der Merwe, Sione Tuipulotu, Pierre Schoeman and Sam Skinner – will get their first taste of the Cardiff citadel. But there is an experienced core to this Scotland team now which, despite facing a fired-up Welsh side desperate for a restorative victory after last week’s Dublin débacle, should have enough about them to end that 20-year barren run.
If so it will be the first time the Scots have won their first two matches in the Six Nations, and a first time in the championship since 1996. But too many calamities have befallen them in this fixture over the past two decades to take anything for granted.
“We need to stay involved in every moment of the game, win all the small battles and make sure we grow in confidence and belief as the game goes on,” Hogg says. “We’ve got boys who now have a huge amount of experience and know how tough it is to play at the Principality. But there is confidence and belief in our squad that we can go out there and do it.”
