Tighthead still learning and got ‘both barrels’ in team meeting
Ollie Blyth-Lafferty is adding language skills to his scrummaging prowess as he continues his front-row education with Edinburgh.
The tighthead prop has been in fine form this season, starting four of his club’s five matches and helping them go top of the United Rugby Championship.
At 20, Blyth-Lafferty is still a young pup in front-row terms but has not been fazed by coming up against seasoned campaigners.
In the last two weeks he has acquitted himself well against the France and South Africa international looseheads, Jean-Baptiste Gros and Boan Venter, as Edinburgh have faced Toulon and the Lions.
Edinburgh may have come out second best against Toulon in the European Challenge Cup but it was another important building block for Blyth-Lafferty. It was the second time he had faced Gros - Edinburgh beat Toulon last season in the Champions Cup - and he’s learning to navigate the front-row sledging as well as the black arts of the scrum.
‘Tu es fatigué!’
“He's been practising his French,” revealed Stevie Lawrie, the Edinburgh forwards coach. “He's been shouting across in French. He's like: ‘Tu es fatigué!’ We have some good conversations about that
“With Boan, he was also getting stuck in. Boan said something about: ‘Standard, seeing you down there on the floor’. Well, you don't want to get in a war of words with these guys. They're quick-witted, all of them. They'll just fly back, and he did.
“He came back with a retort, and the whole pack laughed at it, apparently. I can't repeat it, but I think they were having a good bit of banter there.”
From team-mates to front-row rivals
Blyth-Lafferty and Venter were team-mates up until last season and the former credits the latter for helping his development but the gloves were off last Friday as Blyth-Lafferty was part of the Edinburgh side which beat the Lions 31-10 to maintain top spot in the URC.
Lawrie has been impressed by Blyth-Lafferty’s progress and his willingness to learn. The prop is still developing and mistakes will happen but there is a maturity about Blyth-Lafferty which explains why many were surprised this week when he wasn’t included in the Scotland squad for next month’s Nations Championship games.
“Ollie's got the bit between his teeth,” said Lawrie. “He wants to be super successful.
“Look, it didn't go perfectly [against the Lions]. We got turned over in the first scrum, and then he had to work it out. That's what being a 20-year-old prop is all about.
“It's not acceptable [to get punished in a scrum like that]. He knows it's not acceptable. In fact, he got it both barrels about it in the forwards meeting today. However, he owns it, 100 per cent.
“It should be better but you've got to go through it and be able to feel it. We know that. It's the toughest position on the pitch, bar none.
“He’s scrummaged against Boan [in training] for the last two years. He was always asking, ‘when can I scrummage against Boan and Schoey [Pierre Schoeman]’ when he was younger and we had to hold him back a bit because we wanted to make sure that he was good enough – and I think he's shown that now.
“But yes, for him to be exposed to these guys is important. He's playing URC, he doesn't need to win games single-handedly or anything, but if I didn't think he was able to compete and show dominance at times, then he wouldn't be near it – because we've got other good tighthead as well, like D'arcy Rae, Paul Hill and Rhys Litterick's coming back to fitness now, which is great.”