Saints Q&A: Tom Vickers talks to Scotland centre Rory Hutchinson

That is the contrast Saints centre Rory Hutchinson was in the middle of this week as he sat in typically relaxed fashion at the media day before Saturday’s huge East Midlands derby in the Gallagher PREM.

Hutchinson, a calm and composed character, happily discussed a variety of topics, giving insight into what it’s like to look forward to taking on Tigers as he and his team-mates return to action after taking last week off.

Here is our full question and answer session with the skillful Scotland ace...

Q: What did you do during your week off?

A: "We went away to Portugal to play golf, there was a group of of us: myself, Mitch (Alex Mitchell), Fin (Smith), (Henry) Pollock, (Josh) Kemeny, Robbie Smith so we went there for three days.

"All in all it was a good trip, good weather, good company and we just chilled at the back end of the week so it was nice to have a bit of a refresh."

Q: Who's the best golfer?

A: "Robbie Smith, definitely. He's a tidy golfer.

"I think he played a bit in Scotland when he was younger."

Q: How far in advance do you plan those trips away?

A: “That was like two weeks before. We don't really get a serious heads-up obviously because we want to be in quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals so you never really know (if you will have free weekends).

"They (the coaches) are pretty good with us and as soon as they know, they're like 'right, that will be a bit of time off'.

"The Mrs doesn't like it but what can you do really?

"In the summer you don't know if you're going on tour and stuff like that and when the season is going to finish.

"I guess you've got to plan right until the last week but I've been doing it a while now so it'll be all right."

Q: How good was it to have a reset ahead of such important matches?

A: "It's good to switch off and get away from it, which is something I've learned to do the older I've got.

"The coaches manage the squad pretty well, they recruit really well and we've got healthy competition in all areas so if someone was to have a rest, it makes no difference for another player to come in and play.

"Time away is brilliant but obviously now we're back, this is the important end of the season.

"We've done a lot of hard work at the start of the season and it's about continuing that and taking it all the way to the end."

Q: Did you watch any rugby while you were off?

A: "I don't really tend to watch that much rugby.

"To be fair, I watched the Bath game because my friend, Francois (van Wyk), was playing, but the only rugby I really tend to watch is on a Friday night.

"If I'm just sat at home before our game the next day, I might watch the Friday night game but I guess when you're here all the time, you're watching rugby all the time in meetings, you do end up watching too much so it's quite nice to sit back from it all.

"It's not something where I'm like, ‘I need to sit down and watch that’."

Q: What did you make to the Bordeaux-Bath game, then?

A: "I didn't realise but Tony (Anthony Belleau) said it rained pretty heavily before and it ended up being quite a scrappy game didn't it, really?

"Bordeaux are a very powerful team and they got it over the line but it could have gone either way really.

"There was one point where a kick went through and (Henry) Arundell was after it and I thought if it just bounces down and he gets that and scores, it's a different game.

"It was a lot tighter than I thought.

"It will be interesting to see what happens in the final (with Bordeaux taking on Leinster in Bilbao), but Bordeaux look like they're a bit unstoppable at the moment."

Q: You guys must be desperate to get out there yourselves and have a go against Leicester this weekend?

A: "Exactly. We'd have loved to have played Bordeaux again because they gave us a good running at their place so it would have been good to go up against them, with what happened last year in the final, but we had a week off with no rugby and now we're back into it.

"Obviously the boys are excited because it's derby week and you don't really need to say too much about that. It's self-explanatory.

"There's a buzz around the town and you know even before you become a Saints player that this is the biggest game.

"You don't want to talk about the emotional side of it too much, you just want to focus on yourselves and we want to put our best foot forward.

"We're going there to get a result and put ourselves in the best position for the week after and the week after that."

Q: You'll know if you can win this weekend it would be a significant result in the battle for a top-two place, which is something you'll have targeted before the season started…

A: "Of course.

"We want top two, they want to be in the top four and both teams are fighting for something.

"We want to keep the momentum going.

"I wouldn't say we've been 100 per cent firing at the moment, we've maybe not performed as much as we'd have liked but we've still got results, which is great.

"You've got to take positives from getting results even though we've not played as well as we could, and we know we've got more to give.

"I guess that's exciting."

Q: What's it like playing in a derby match at Mattioli Woods Welford Road?

A: "When you get a good result there, it's one of the best places to play.

"With the history of it all and the Tigers fans and the away fans from Northampton, I've been fortunate enough to have some good results up there and hopefully we get one this weekend."

Q: What are your favourite memories there?

A: "There was one when TC (Tom Collins) scored and Cobus (Reinach).

"Cobus had a go at me after that game (in March 2019) because he had some sort of Nike bonus where he had to hit a certain number of tries and he fell short by one so he was telling me I should have passed him the ball.

"That was a great result for us there (Saints won 29-15) and it's always a good spectacle.

"We're looking forward to the weekend."