When highly competitive athletes clash on the pitch, a degree of personal animosity is perhaps inevitable, at least at first. Once they get to know each other, however, friendship often arises based on a recognition - unsurprisingly for people doing the same job - that they have a lot in common.
That certainly seems to be the case with Glasgow tighthead prop Zander Fagerson and the man he is likely to come up against in the 1872 Cup match at Scotstoun on Friday night, Edinburgh loosehead Pierre Schoeman. The pair have been regular adversaries since Schoeman signed for the capital club five years ago, and Fagerson admits that at first they did not exactly see eye to eye.
More recently, however - especially since Schoeman made his Scotland debut in 2021 - they have become firm friends. To the extent that Fagerson, in a compliment that has just a little bit of a put-down to it too, regards his team-mate and rival as the “third child” in his family.
“We used to hate each other quite a lot,” Fagerson admits. “It was just probably that Edinburgh-Glasgow rivalry.
“I didn’t really know the guy - how he is on the pitch isn’t how he is off the pitch. He’s still probably a bit full-on sometimes when you’re training with him on the pitch. But he’s not a bad bloke.
“Then of course we became team-mates and we’re good pals. He’s usually my roomy in camp as well. We have a laugh - but after the World Cup he said ‘I can’t speak to you till the New Year’.
“He’s good fun. He’s like a third child for me - he’s very immature! But we have a laugh, a good giggle, and my kids absolutely love him - Uncle Pierre.”
Different players psych themselves up for the derby in different ways. Some try to inculcate in themselves a dislike of their opposite numbers, possibly in an attempt to blot out the fact that they are in fact playing against friends who in many cases, like Fagerson and Schoeman, are their Scotland team-mates. But Fagerson himself believes that, especially with the Scotland training camp for the Six Nations Championship now just a matter of weeks away, it is better to treat his Edinburgh opponents as what they are - good mates.
“Some boys hate them - I really like them,” he explained. “It’s good fun.
“After this Christmas and New Year period, we’ll hopefully see each other in camp, and we’re all good mates. I hang out with a lot of them in camp.
“Yeah, [there will be] a few little digs here, a few little digs there at the bottom of rucks and stuff, but it’s good fun. I really enjoy these games.
“It doesn’t matter who Edinburgh put out this weekend, they’ve got a good pack. So it’s going to be a good challenge for us and it will be good to see where we’re at.
“I think we’re going to take them head on. They know what’s coming. We pride ourselves as forwards on our game, on our pack, so it’s going to be a good challenge.
“In these derby games form doesn’t really come into it. It’s whoever is best on the day. Sometimes one team doesn’t rock up as well as they should when they’ve maybe been doing stuff really well all season.
“Sometimes either team can maybe get ahead of themselves and the occasion. I think for us it’s about making sure it’s a normal week, it’s another game of rugby, no matter who we’re playing.”
The imminence of the Six Nations - or, more specifically, of head coach Gregor Townsend’s announcement of his training squad for the Championship - often means that the focus in the derbies is on individual duels. The Warriors’ Rory Darge against Edinburgh’s Hamish Watson in the back row, for example. Or at scrum-half Ali Price, the Warrior who is on a season-long loan to Edinburgh, against his Scotstoun colleague George Horne.
But Fagerson is Townsend’s first-choice tighthead by a considerable margin, with the likes of Edinburgh pair Javan Sebastian and WP Nel really only contending against one another to be his back-up. So how does he motivate himself for the derby?
“For me it’s never about an individual battle,” he explains. I’m always just trying to be the best version of me I can be. So I want to get to the top of my game. So for me it’s always about improving every week and making sure I’m on that - and when I’m not, making sure I get pulled up on it.
“So yeah, for me this week nothing changes. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing. I’m just trying to put the best version of myself out on the pitch and make sure I’m in the best mindset and the best physical condition for that game.”
