Tangled up in Dark Blue
Springbok Dylan lands a surprise Scots call-up
GREGOR TOWNSEND has a reputation for naming curve-ball selections in his Scotland training squads – and the head coach did it again yesterday.
He named 14 uncapped players among the group of 36 who will meet in Edinburgh on Tuesday to start preparations for the Autumn Test schedule, which kicks off against Tonga on October 30.
And the most left-field of his selections was 22-year-old South African Dylan Richardson.
The utility forward qualifies to wear the thistle through his father – but was an unknown in Scotland until rumours of a surprise call-up started to circulate in his homeland on Tuesday.
Fellow South African Pierre Schoeman is also in the squad for the first time having completed the threeyear residency requirement since joining Edinburgh in the summer of 2018.
Townsend has also handed Edinburgh’s Australia bornand-raised stand-off Charlie Savala – whose dad is from Ayr – a call-up.
The selections are likely to reignite the debate about eligibility laws and whether it devalues international rugby to plug gaps in national squads by parachuting players in from overseas.
Townsend said: “With four tough Test matches ahead of us in this year’s Autumn Nations Series it is important we bring players together early, connect with them as coaches and enable them to grow as a group before the campaign gets underway.
“We are pleased with the depth we’re able to call upon to make up this training squad and it provides an opportunity for players to put their hand up for selection to the full Autumn Nations Series squad.”
The non-homebased players – including Stuart Hogg, Finn Russell, Duhan van der Merwe, Chris Harris and Rory Sutherland – are not included in the squad because the Tonga match falls outside World Rugby’s international window.
But they’ll be in the running to face Australia, South Africa and Japan.