TOONY’S TORMENT
SIX NATIONS SCOTLAND LATEST GORDON PARKS
GREGOR TOWNSEND admits he held a two-day selection summit before deciding to bench hat-trick try hero Blair Kinghorn for Scotland’s clash with Ireland. The Dark Blues boss insists it was an agonising call to reinstate Sean Maitland on the wing despite Kinghorn’s treble in last weekend’s win over Italy. Eyebrows were raised as the Edinburgh flying machine made way for the Saracens star despite becoming the first Scot to run in three Championship tries since Iwan Tukalo achieved the feat against Ireland in 1989. But Townsend has opted to go with the tried and trusted for tomorrow’s Test against the side ranked second in the world. He said: “The decision was more difficult than what we planned it was going to be the week before. “We were always hoping Sean would get back fit for this game. Sean would have been starting against Italy with Tommy Seymour if he’d been fit. “Blair’s display did mean we had an extended discussion that probably went on a second day but we believe Tommy and g.parks@dailyrecord.co.uk Sean are best equipped for this game. As a coaching group we debate the pros and cons with it.
“The fact we did not announce the squad until Wednesday meant those discussions lasted longer. We also had to wait to see if Sean could train this week.
“Sean trained fully on Monday and Tuesday which gave us much more confidence this was the selection we were going with.
Townsend has made four changes from the side that beat the Azzurri 33-20 as Maitland comes in for Kinghorn while prop Simon Berghan and back-row Josh Strauss start in place of injured forwards WP Nel and Sam Skinner.
The other change has Jonny Gray replacing Ben Toolis in the second row after the Glasgow Warrior’s recovery from a shoulder injury. And Townsend is adamant selecting players who’ve been over the Six Nations course before is key.
He said: “Most of those players, if not all of them, played against Ireland last year and in 2017, so they know what Ireland are capable of and what a good team they are.
“But they also know what we did well in those two games, so to have that level of quality and conversation as you lead into a game is important.
“They’ve been in these situations before and played well for Scotland. There’s experience now back in the team with Sean and Jonny, and experience on the bench with Fraser Brown and Pete Horne that we didn’t have as much last week.”
Ireland arrive in Edinburgh on the back of a Championship opening 32-20 home defeat to England. But Townsend will be on weather watch ahead of the clash with blustery conditions expected to force him to adopt a strategy to cope with adverse conditions.
He said: “We’ve got our eye on the weather. If we have to play against the wind or with the wind we’d change things tactically.
“We know the challenge we’re up against. They’ll want to get back to what they do best which is controlled possession, they’re a very good defensive team as well and they’ll challenge our contact.
“It’ll be a huge battle and within that there’s many battles around the restart, the kick cycle, the contact area, scrum and lineout. We can’t wait to get stuck in.”