Rory Darge will lead his own way in Scotland’s post-Sione world

Fast forward to Tuesday and Darge found himself on a Roman catwalk, accompanied by Townsend as the pair represented Scotland at the tournament’s glitzy launch event in the Italian capital.

Of course, it should have been Tuipulotu on the runway at Spazio Field, a palace-turned-arts-space in the middle of Rome, but sadly the centre is no longer part of the squad. As has been well documented, a training ground injury has left him with a torn pectoral muscle which will, in Townsend’s estimation, keep him out for four to five months.

Tuipulotu is a huge figure within the group, a large personality to match his outrageous talent, and it has taken two players to replace him, with Darge and Russell fast-tracked to co-captaincy.

It was the former who travelled to Italy for the Six Nations launch and while he didn’t look entirely comfortable to be on a catwalk in front of a phalanx of photographers, Darge knows these things come with the job he has just inherited.

“I understand that the extra responsibilities - like this event - that lie on your shoulders don't take away from anything,” he said. “It doesn't creep into my prep for a game or my prep for training and I think that's a really important thing to have in your mind, to have awareness that you separate the two.

“There are extra things you have to do as a captain, you do them but you still prep as well as you possibly can.”

He was in good company in Rome, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Antoine Dupont, Maro Itoje and Caelan Doris as the Six Nations skippers performed their media duties, and it was certainly not alien to him. He and Russell captained Scotland in last season’s championship but Darge seems a more assured figure this year. “The experience of captaining before has been massive for me,” he says.

He is determined to be his own man and won’t try to copy Tuipulotu’s more vocal tendencies.

“No, I think I have to lead how I lead and use the guys around me and Finn. We've been asked a couple of times about how the co-captaincy works. Every team in the Six Nations will have a leadership group and the guys who are here today [the other teams’ captains], they'll lean on and make use of the guys around them in the leadership group to deliver on attack or defence, the different aspects of the game, the more emotional side of things or the more technical side of things.

“It's no different with a co-captaincy and it's no different with the way we're doing things in Scotland. We're going to have to use the experience amongst the squad, especially that back line - there's a lot of experience there. Whoever comes in at 12 is whoever comes in at 12, but you've got Huw Jones who's played a lot at 13, he's got over 50 caps, Blair Kinghorn, over 50 caps, Duhan [van der Merwe] and Darcy [Graham] and hopefully Kyle Steyn will come back fit at some point. I've played a lot of rugby for Scotland and we're a fairly settled squad and fairly aligned in terms of what we need to do.”

The group has been together for a while now and is suffused with talent but there remains the nagging sense that they haven’t achieved what they should have. Townsend’s Scotland have beaten England four years in a row, which is a remarkable achievement, and there have been other big wins but they have never finished higher than third in the Six Nations.

Darge wasn’t about to start making bold predictions about this season but he does sense a steely resolve within the squad.

“It just feels like there's more focus coming into this campaign, the conversations that we had earlier when we had discussions as groups were really encouraging because everyone was saying the same thing. And I know that sounds like, ‘well, why is that encouraging?’ but it is. It means that we're all aligned from day one and there's just a real focus to this.”

The proof of the pudding is in the eating of course and we will start to see the results of the more focused Scotland when they kick off their campaign at home to Italy a week on Saturday. It was against the Italians last year that the Scottish campaign unravelled as the visitors squandered a 22-10 first-half lead to lose 31-29 at the Stadio Olimpico. It was their first loss to Italy since 2015 and their first defeat in Rome in 12 years.

Darge knows Scotland need a winning start to be serious challengers this year but is wary of the Italian rugby renaissance under Gonzalo Quesada. Aside from beating Scotland last season, the Argentina coach led them to a win over Wales in Cardiff and a draw with France in Paris. In truth, they should also have beaten England.

“Italy have been building for a while and they're a really difficult team to beat,” said Darge. “At club level they've been building a bit of momentum, Benetton Treviso beat La Rochelle at the weekend there and Italy beat us last year. So, there's a challenge there in just beating Italy and the other challenge is you have to start well in the Six Nations if you've got any real ambition or aspirations.

“So we've got this week as a prep week then some boys will go back to their clubs to play rugby and some will stay. Then we've got next week and we have to do everything between now and next weekend to make sure that, when it comes to that game, we deliver.”

Darge says he is proud to take on the responsibility of being captain and looking forward to working with Russell again but his thoughts are also with Tuipulotu.

“I'm excited,” he said. “I'm obviously gutted for Sione on a personal level. He's my mate and I think his form was honestly at times hard to believe.

“Every week he would just come and perform and push the bar even further. So, I’m gutted for him because it was really exciting to see how he was going to come into this campaign but also massively excited to get the chance to co-captain with Finn again after getting the experience of it last year.”