Scott Cummings: Pumas game a 'massive opportunity' to make Test claim

RTÉ News​

8 hours ago

From an Irish perspective, there's a real familiarity to Andy Farrell's British and Irish coaching ticket.
Between the inclusion of Andrew Goodman, Simon Easterby, John Fogarty and Johnny Sexton in the main group, or even support staff such as David Nucifora, Aled Walters, Vinny Hammond and Gary Keegan, the Lions leadership is heavily populated by those who currently are or recently were involved with the IRFU.
But one of the most important coaching roles for the Lions this summer is being filled by someone who isn't as familiar to an Irish audience.
Along with England's Richard Wigglesworth, Scotland's John Dalziel is the only member of the main Lions coaching staff who isn't coming from Farrell's Irish Rugby stable.
The former London Scottish and Borders flanker has been forwards coach for Gregor Townsend at Scotland since 2020, having come through the pathways at the Scottish Rugby Union, working with their Under-20s and Sevens teams before stepping up to the senior coaching ticket.
So, what should the Irish Lions contingent expect from Dalziel (below) over the next seven weeks?
"He's great," said Scott Cummings, one of seven Scotland players in the Lions squad.
"I've been with John Dalziel [for a long time], he was my U20s coach and coached me at Glasgow and has obviously done stuff at Scotland, so I know him really well.
"He's really detail-orientated in what he wants from the guys. You'll probably see that as soon as we play, around how things work, but he's also really good at understanding the strengths that the squad has and using those strengths.
"It's not like 'this is our plan, we have to go with this'. If someone like Maro comes in and says 'could we run this, or this?', he's open to allowing a lot of player input, which just gets all the players on board really well.
"He's definitely pushing the standard in our set-piece area."
Cummings was part of a squad of 24 that trained in Portugal last week, with players from Leinster, Bath, Leicester Tigers and Blair Kinghorn from Toulouse not involved as they continued their club seasons.
And he says the small Irish contingent who were part of the Algarve camp were useful for info on how the coaches ticked.
"He [Farrell] didn't load us too much before we came in. We were playing with our clubs and he wanted us finishing the season winning if we could.
"But since we've been in, there's a lot of detail being added. Everyone's trying to help each other out.
"Obviously, some of the Irish guys have been through certain things but it's a different game plan and there's a lot of stuff coming from all the teams. So everyone is working together as much as they can.
"I'd know some of the stuff that JD [Dalziel] has brought in, there's some stuff that Wiggs [Wigglesworth] has brought in from England. There is obviously a large Irish contingent as well but there's lots of stuff we're taking from the different teams we're trying to integrate into one."
A first-time Lion, Cummings (above) faces stiff competition for a place in next month's Test squad with the likes of captain Maro Itoje, Tadhg Beirne, Joe McCarthy, Ollie Chessum and James Ryan also vying for places, but should get an opportunity to stake an early claim in Friday's send-off game against Argentina at Aviva Stadium.
Farrell is due to name his team this afternoon ahead of Friday's game, but with Chessum and the Leinster pair only joining the squad this week, it leaves Cummings, Itoje and Beirne likely to be involved on Friday.
And with less than two weeks training behind them for this opening game of the summer, the Glasgow Warriors lock says the players have to take on the responsibility this week.
"I think the coaches have put it on us. We've only been together for a short period of time so there will be some mistakes.
"We're still learning our systems over the past couple of weeks, but Friday is a massive opportunity for us to show what we've been working on.
"We have high quality players across the team, and they're just telling us to go and make rugby decisions; attack it, don't sit back and let Argentina play their style. Go and get them, go and show what we can do as a team.
"It's a massive occasion, if I'm lucky enough to get selected it will be a huge moment for anyone," he added.