Scotland scrumhalf credits French club for improvement
SPOTLIGHT: Scotland scrumhalf Ben White believes his three seasons in France’s Top 14 with Toulon have made him better prepared for the demands of international Rugby Union.
The 27-year-old moved to the south of France from London Irish following the 2023 World Cup.
White, speaking ahead of Scotland’s Six Nations opener away to Italy on Saturday, was in no doubt about the benefits of playing his club rugby in France.
“It’s been great for me,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “It’s been an amazing experience. I love playing out in France.
“The Top 14 is a tough league, and it has different challenges to playing in other leagues. One of the biggest things that I’ve found playing in the Top 14 is that every game is a massive occasion.
“You’re playing in front of sell-out crowds every week. There’s so much pressure on the home team to win.
“You have that level of pressure that almost feels the same as a Test match, which is something that took me a bit of time to get used to.”
‘High-pressure games’
He added: “I feel that when I come back into the Scotland environment, I’ve been playing every week in high-pressure games where ‘we must win, we must win’ is the message.
“And that transfers and makes you feel more comfortable in those high-pressure environments, which they are when you’re playing international rugby. So I feel it’s prepared me really well.”
White, set to be named in Scotland coach Gregor Townsend’s starting side on Thursday, said there were several aspects of French rugby that had developed his game.
“From a more technical rugby perspective, I think that as a scrumhalf playing in France, it can be a little bit messier, a little bit more free-flowing, a little bit more open,” he explained.
“And you’re obviously around a lot of big bodies and the rucks are scrappier, so then when I come to play with Scotland, I think some of that stuff that I work on at club about trying to be fast and move the ball away from the ruck quickly when it’s messy, when I come here and I can transfer those skills, it helps me in those moments.”
White is one of several Scots in the Top 14, with Blair Kinghorn at Toulouse, Jonny Gray at Bordeaux, Price and Stuart Hogg at Montpellier and Jamie Ritchie at Perpignan.
Scotland centre Huw Jones is set to join White at Toulon next season.
“Obviously, I played against a couple of the guys the other week when we played Montpellier, and it’s obviously going to be really nice to have Huw joining me in Toulon,” said White.
“One of the beauties of the Top 14 is that there are so many good players, and it is a great competition. In my opinion, the more players we have from Scotland playing in the league and playing at the highest level across Europe, it’s fantastic for us, and it drives the quality of the squad.”
White, meanwhile, said any lingering negativity following Scotland’s disappointing November losses to New Zealand and Argentina was now a thing of the past.
“You start fresh, and hopefully we take the learnings that we’ve spoken about from November into this,” he said. “It’s been a great couple of weeks building up to this. Training’s been great.”
