'Extra one percenters' - the Olympic psychologist helping Scotland's Six Nations bid

Ireland’s dominance of Scotland is a modern day phenomenon which seems barely credible to those who watched the fixture in the Seventies, Eighties and Nineties. The 10-in-a-row run bookends Gregor Townsend’s tenure as head coach but the Irish have enjoyed the whip hand for far longer than that.

Since the Five Nations became Six in 2000 the two teams have met 32 times in all competitions and Ireland have won 26 games to Scotland’s six. If you only count Six Nations matches, the tally is 21-4 in favour of the men in green.

It’s a lot of baggage for the current Scotland squad to carry going into Sunday’s game between the sides at Murrayfield. At the end of last season’s Six Nations campaign Finn Russell spoke of the “need to get mentally stronger” and different experts have been brought in to help in that respect.

Aaron Walsh, a mental skills coach from New Zealand, worked with the team from the autumn Tests in 2022 through to the 2023 Rugby World Cup. David Gray, the former Scotland Sevens captain turned mindset coach, was in camp during last November’s series. But perhaps the most significant hire has been that of Jess Thom, the British Olympic team’s lead psychologist, who also began working with the Scotland squad during the autumn.

Thom, a former competitive figure skater, deployed a number of mental strategies to help athletes cope with the pressure of competing at the Paris 2024 Games.

Rory Sutherland, the Scotland prop, feels he has benefited from working with her.

“I had a good sit down with Jess,” said Sutherland. “I think it's more about having the willingness to open up, let them know what your problems are, the areas you think you can improve, what are your strengths, and then just trying to work there and making sure that you can squeeze those extra one percenters out through the week to make sure you're building to your best possible performance.

“I think regardless of what sport Jess has been involved with, it's purely about building a strong mindset and building a good week to be at your best, to put your best performance out at the end of the week. She probably had a lot of experience in other sports in that area. I think we're benefiting from that massively.”

Confidence is key for Sutherland and he thinks it is something Scotland have lacked at times. A negative run of results is obviously not going to help in that respect but the Glasgow Warriors forward believes the squad is embracing the help that is on offer.

“Mindset has been something we've been working on for the past two or three years,” he said. “We‘ve had guys in and out of camp to help us with the mindset and it's something that we are driving now, not only through the coaches, but it's a player-driven thing now. We had a good week last week, we've had a couple of good days this week already, so we're building that mindset to be in the best possible position, to be confident to put a good performance out at the weekend.

“I think that's something we've struggled with consistently throughout Scotland's history, is confidence and building confidence through games. When we do well, can we back it up? It's a huge work-on for us, but I think, like I say, we've had people in, we're looking to improve that area and we are making leaps and bounds on that, we are going really well. Mindset's a big thing for us and we're definitely improving in that area.”

Scotland opened their Six Nations on Saturday with a 31-19 win over Italy which Sutherland described as “probably not one of our strongest performances”. Ireland, meanwhile, kick-started their campaign with a 27-22 victory against England. Sutherland made his Scotland debut against Ireland in 2016 and has played against them six times in total, losing on each occasion. The margin of victory in Dublin last year was four points which was enough for the home side to secure the championship for the second year in a row.

“They’re a team we hold in very high regard,” said Sutherland. “We've got a lot of respect for Ireland, they're a fantastic outfit and we've come very close in recent years. We had a good start to the Six Nations last week, we'll look to build on that this week. I think there is a little bit of added spice there because it's them, we've fallen short a couple of times, but we've got a lot of respect for them and it's a test we're really looking forward to and I think it's a test we'll be well prepared to win.”

Sutherland feels there is some work to be done on Scotland’s scrummaging ahead of this weekend. “Looking at last week, some of the scrums were a little bit messy, so we'll look to try and tidy that up a little bit this week,” he said.

The Hawick prop replaced Pierre Schoeman for the final half hour against Italy and regardless of who starts on Sunday, the scrum is likely to be a key battleground against an Ireland side missing their first-choice tighthead, Tadhg Furlong.

“I think set pieces are a massive part of the game now,” added Sutherland. “You look to force penalties, get yourself back up the other end of the pitch. The set piece is something we've been working on, trying to improve for a long time now, and I think we're making ground in that area as well. It's going to be a tough challenge up front for us this week, but it's a challenge that we'll relish and a challenge that we'll look forward to massively.”