Scotland captain Danny Brough is poised to reach another career landmark tonight if he scores three points when his Huddersfield Giants play host to Wakefield Trinity in the third round of this season’s Super League.
Either a try or two successful kicks at goal by one of the sport’s most reliable goal-kickers in the history of the sport will see him join the top 10 all-time points scorers in the history of the sport.
It is a reminder that Scottish success at the top level of a sport in which Hawick’s Dave Valentine was the first man ever to lift the World Cup more than 60 years ago, is by no means a new phenomenon that Brough will need to keep rattling up the points a bit longer to be top Scot since his former international team-mate Mick Nanyn is sixth on that list.
However, as with his selection for the most prestigious individual prize in the British game, when he won the ‘Man of Steel’ award in 2013, his elevation into another of the sport’s most select groups once again reinforces the stature of the inspirational leader of the national side in a World Cup year.
There is a sense of momentum being generated at the right time with Scottish international players having contributed significantly to last weekend’s first British success for five years in the World Club Challenge, with Matty Russell was praised for his try-scoring performance for Warrington Wolves in their win over Brisbane Broncos, while Lewis Tierney was part of the Wigan Warriors side that beat Cronulla Sharks in the championship match and the national team’s head coach Steve McCormack’s options are growing with more Scots performing at elite level than ever before.
Whereas the Scottish team that created a major surprise by reaching the World Cup quarter-finals four years ago, then went on to win the European Championship in 2014, had only a small contingent of full-time Super League and Australian National Rugby league players to call upon, the vast majority of those in contention for places when the tournament takes place on the Gold Coast later this year will be in action in those competitions this season.
Brough is accompanied at Huddersfield by Ryan Brierley, his half-back partner who scored Scotland’s first ever try against Australia’s Kangaroos as the Four Nations got underway in October and Dale Ferguson, Scotland’s starting props in that tournament Luke Douglas and Adam Walker are working together at St Helens, Liam Hood and Sam Brookes are on the books at Leigh Centurions and Widnes respectively and, of course, Tierney and Russell have picked up where they left off when they met one another in the Grand Final last autumn.
In the NRL Kane Linnett and Lachlan Coote have meanwhile returned to North Queensland Cowboys since playing their parts in the draw with New Zealand which rounded off the Four Nations campaign with what was reckoned to be the biggest ever shock in a rugby league Test, while Peter Wallace, who missed the Four Nations through injury, is back in action at Penrith Panthers and Joe Wardle is starting a new adventure at Newcastle Knights, having joined them from Huddersfield in the close season.
Generating competition for places as never before, another seven contenders for places in McCormack’s World Cup squad are meanwhile on full-time contracts in the second tier Championship with teenage loose forward Brandan Wilkinson and full-back Oscar Thomas playing for Bradford Bulls, Alex Walker and Ben Hellewell at London Broncos and Four Nations stars Danny Addy and Ben Kavanagh joining Kieran Moran at relegated Hull KR having left Bradford over the winter.
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