Over the opening three World Cup pool matches, Irish players have consistently spoken about painting pictures on the pitch. They talk about painting their own pictures and the opposition painting pictures for them. The buzz phrase for visualisation, creating moments and reacting to them is painting pictures.
Until the Scotland team announcement at 5pm on Thursday, Ireland’s Jamison Gibson-Park would have settled on Ben White being the Scotland scrumhalf tasked with doing much of the painting in the Stade de France on Saturday.
Instead he faces the former Lion Ali Price, who crashed to earth when he fell out of favour with his Glasgow club and Scotland but who Gregor Townsend has repositioned this week on a cometh-the-hour, cometh-the-man type of team selection.
Price lost his place for this year’s Six Nations and coming into the World Cup White still held the shirt. Slipping down the pecking order with Scotland for whom he had been a first-choice pick since after the 2019 World Cup was a traumatic experience for the 30-year-old scrumhalf.
“It’s been frustrating at times,” says Price. “I feel during the Six Nations there was a turning point for me in terms of me seeing progress within myself in training. I was healthy. I was making the most of the opportunities I had on the field. The starts were less than I would have liked or what was previously but I slowly got myself back to a place where I think I’m performing.
“I played in the November tests, got quite a few minutes under my belt there. That period between November and the Six Nations, I was given time off then I got minutes here and there with Glasgow. That was frustrating for me and again it came back to others paying well. I won’t forget the chat I had with Gregor before the England game when I wasn’t involved. You know a heart-sink moment, the realisation.”
To mark the period of struggle Price inked the stages of metamorphosis of a caterpillar as it changed into a butterfly on his left arm. But as Townsend demonstrated by leaving White out of the match day 23 to face Ireland, a changed Price is not an emotional pick.
Like Gibson-Park, the quality and accuracy of his passing is central to Scotland’s playbook, and with the influential playmaker Finn Russell at outhalf receiving most of those, the relationship between Price and his former flatmate could have been a thumb on the scales in the selection. It’s a bromance that hasn’t been blossoming for some time but one that Gibson-Park and Johnny Sexton are certain to respect.
“We feel Ali is in the best form of the three nines,” says Townsend. “He has played a lot of rugby with Finn, but all our nines know to help our attack they have to be accurate with their passing. You’ve got to get that ball into Finn’s hands quickly and Finn has got to get the ball to other people’s hands quickly for us to be at our most effective and Ali has done that in the past. Ben did that well in the past, now Ali has the opportunity to do that again from the start.”
More robust than Gibson-Park, there’s a bite to Price and probably greater freight to his physical contribution. But the Irish scrumhalf is more the conductor and a natural at using space. He can build and reduce tempo for Ireland and has a good kicking game. Although a couple of box kicks were blocked against South Africa, that part of Gibson-Park’s game has been strong and convincing, especially when the timing and trajectory chime and Ireland throw players like Hugo Keenan and Mack Hansen into competing in the air.
But Price can take on defenders and as Townsend outlined, his training ground form is what has gotten him on to the pitch. An important strength is his pass selection, not just the pace and accuracy but his choice in where the ball goes.
“He was excellent over in St Etienne. He was very good off the bench against South Africa and we saw what he’d been doing in training during that Romanian game,” says Townsend. “The accuracy in his pass, the confidence in where he is in terms of taking on defenders, making passes which lead to tries and that is great as he’s been a key player for us over the last six or seven years.
“For him to be back in that excellent form is a real boost. I have to say it was a difficult decision as Ben [White] started for us in the Six Nations, he’s a really good player, very confident. His rise in terms of where he’s come from in the last couple of years has brought the best out of Ali.”
In respect of decision-making, Price buys into the general Scotland narrative that there will be five or six important moments in the match and whichever team dominates those will win. Victory comes with taking advantage of the flashpoints over the 80 minutes.
He believes Scotland have done that in the past but have not been able to extract anything. Still, they are fifth in the world, a position they reached in February after beating England and the first time they had been that high in the rankings since finishing in the top half of the table in the 2018 Six Nations.
“Ireland are obviously on a brilliant run,” says Price. “I think there have been moments in the games we’ve had against them if we’d taken them potentially the outcome could have been different. Playing against these [top] sides in the world you will only get a handful of opportunities and it is about taking them. That’s where we have come unstuck over the years, especially against these top teams. Every team will have to win a moment five or six times within the 80 minutes. For us it will be about trying to make the most of those.
“Against Ireland opportunities are also going to be less. It’s about making the most of those. Look, in reality we know it probably will be tight. But we have the players to score and I think we don’t change who we are against whoever we are playing. That’s important. We will still go out there and do what we do well. That’s moving the ball, scoring points.”
Ireland are painting pictures. Scotland are painting pictures. Everyone this week is painting their own pictures.
