Jess Thom helped the Elite athletes from Great Britain to enter into the strongest frame of mind to compete for medals at the Olympic Games from last year.
The former competitive artistic skater also worked with sports institutions such as Southampton FC and Wasps Rugby to lead players on problems as varied as “performance anxiety” and “emotional management”.
The approved sports psychologist – who was supervised by Professor Steve Peters, respected psychiatrist and author of the Chimp Paradox, whose list of customers included Sir Chris Hoy and Ronnie O’Sullivan – is also recognized to transform the lives of individuals and businesses in the private sector.
In short, his references cannot be questioned. Scotland rugby players remain concentrated and on, however, for the 80 full minutes of a test match could still be its most difficult challenge to date.
It was Gregor Townsend who brought the former main psychologist of the GB team to the fall to improve the mental robustness of his team. Various players, including the C-Capitaine Finn Russell, spoke of the contribution of Thom and the improvements she made in the camp.
And yet, these same problems of spirit and concentration continue to afflict this team to their detriment. It is a complaint that has followed them for some time now, long before Thom was brought to try to tackle it. How does a high performance side go from the dominant force in a match to become sadly moderate and intimidated, often for no obvious reason behind such an switch?
Tom Jordan marks the fourth Scotland attempt in his 35-29 victory against Wales on Saturday
Blair Kinghorn enjoys the moment after marking his second try of the day in Murrayfield
Max Llewellyn of Wales shows his frustration after the late fight of his team is just short
How can a team as widespread as Scotland be against Wales on Saturday is suddenly hung for an expensive life towards the end of a match he should have won by 50 points?
Even the grand master of the spirit, Sigmund Freud, could have relocated to try to unravel such an enigma.
Scotland has also suffered from successive years through moments of unhappiness. The decision not to grant them a test in last year’s home match against France, then some questionable calls in the recent defeat of Twickenham proved to be expensive on the prospects of the team.
This narrow loss against England lets Scotland go to Paris this weekend to play a creeping France – even without the injured Antoine Dupont – like potential party spoilers rather than as a contenders in the championship. There is Little Townsend or his players can make questionable decisions made by the referees or the TMOs.
However, one of the Scottish mantras over the years has been “controlled controllables”. Focus only on the things you can influence and not on the things you can’t. And a problem that they should be able to control is to maintain a coherent level of performance throughout a match.
There can be no excuses for running in five tests in the first 48 minutes against Wales, then not adding another point for the next 32 minutes. Visitors, without victory in 15 games before arriving in Murrayfield, had seemed to be resigned to another beat.
And then Scotland did what Scotland does by removing the foot of the gas and losing all control of the competition while Wales found a new life from nowhere to run in three other trials and see another prohibited. If the match had lasted another five minutes, Scotland could have lost it.
“Obviously, the second half did not go very well,” said Tom Jordan, marker of two tries, with a heavy dollop in euphemism. “There have been momentum swords. We talked about it a bit at halftime. We knew that they were going to get a little rocket at halftime and go out much harder.
“So, we just had to go back to the essentials and we were probably unlucky with a few sets so as not to rely on this momentum, which was a bit of a shame.”
The teammate Darcy Graham was a little stronger in his evaluation. “We have the impression that we lost this game,” admitted the winger later. “The boys were a bit flat in the locker room. That’s right that we are as a team. We should have put them away. We could have scored four or five additional tests there. This is the frustrating part.
It seems that something important has to change if Scotland must escape this cycle, rather than simple adjustments or seminars on mentality. Townsend has another year to run on his contract, but this weekend may prove to be his last tango in Paris. After eight years, it could be time for new ideas and a new coach who could still stimulate this team to reach the heights that their potential has often alluded without ever being made.
Before that, however, there is the little question of trying to stop a French team which was ruthless in their domination of Ireland on Saturday and who is experiencing a home victory will win their first championship for them since 2022. Scotland will probably not have to worry too much to keep a big lead on this occasion.
“This is a huge opportunity for us and I think it’s just a case to take the momentum from Wales, Corrects, and do everything and leave everything,” added Jordan.
“This is our last match in the Six Nations. Gregor said that Scotland had earned before. It is up to us to do the state of mind, to leave everything there and to give everything and to see how we go from there.
For Jordan, who arrived in this country in New Zealand five and a half years ago in order to play club rugby at the Ayrshire Bulls, it was a remarkable ascent.
“My first outside match was Twickenham who was also quite surreal,” he said. “My next if I play will be in Paris. I never went to Paris. I guess it’s the advantages of playing rugby – you can see the world. It’s a great sport and I’m really grateful to get involved.
