Scotland defence coach Matt Taylor has tipped flanker John Hardie to become a fan favourite ahead of the Rugby World Cup.
The 27-year-old wasn’t part of Vern Cotter’s squad for Scotland’s winless RBS 6 Nations campaign, but impressed on debut in August against Italy.
And Taylor believes the manner of his first two performances in international rugby bodes very well indeed for his future prospects.
“I wouldn’t be surprised in six months or a year’s time, once he’s had a lot more games for Scotland, if he becomes a crowd favourite,” said Taylor.
“If he keeps playing the way he is, the Scottish people will appreciate that he’s working hard and putting his body on the line.
“He’s already done that and I think he’ll continue to do that.
“He has been excellent. I think he made nineteen tackles during the game in France. He was very dominant; he makes a lot of dominant tackles. He is short but he is around 104 kilos so he is a powerful guy.
“In both games he put some really powerful hits in and he has done a really good job in the games he has been involved in.”
Ahead of taking on South Africa, Samoa, and the USA, Scotland will open their Rugby World Cup campaign against Japan at Kingsholm.
And Taylor, Hardie and company are in no mood for underestimating a potential World Cup banana skin. “From what we can see of Japan, they are a very good side,” added Taylor.
“Maybe the stereotype of Japan, and the Japanese people in general, is that they are quite small, but this side is actually quite big when you look at them.
“They have a big back line and a big forward pack. They try to play a quick tempo type game, a very high skill game, but actually there are a lot of big players in that group. They have a few Islander guys in there. The back row Hendrik Tui is very, very good and has scored a lot of tries.
“There is a centre, Male Sa’u and he is a really good carrier and strong, so they have some really good players in the group.
“They might play it slightly differently from maybe South Africa or Samoa but they do have powerful athletes as well.”
Click here for the full 2015 RBS 6 Nations table
