Townsend set to win race against England for Redpath

GREGOR Townsend says that a number of close calls in selection for his training squad came down to minimising the risk of Covid exposure, which explains the absence of Exeter Chiefs duo Sam Skinner and Sam Hidalgo-Clyne.

“We’ve had to take into account that the Six Nations is different from Autumn Nations,” he explained. “We are not able to keep our players in a group throughout the tournament. Our players based in England will have to leave camp on Wednesday to go back to play for their clubs next week, and if they are not in our 23 for the opening game of the tournament [against England on 6th February] then they will have to go on that Tuesday or Wednesday back to their club.

“That’s normal practice – it’s called Regulation Nine of World Rugby’s directives – and it just makes it more challenging during this period when we’re dealing with Covid.

“So there has been factors in our selection regarding the fact that we can’t hold onto players throughout the tournament.

It’s case by case but it wouldn’t have been a factor before. There are players who were in our squad for the autumn, where we’ve decided because of the situation, we have to factor that in [for the Six Nations].

“We need enough training numbers for our work during the week, but we also want to reduce the risk of players coming in and out every week.”

In many respects, Scotland are in a better position to manage the threats of Covid due to the fact they draw heavily from two centrally controlled pro teams.

“We have a really good setup at Oriam and we can make sure we look after our players and keep the virus out of our environment as much as possible,” Townsend added.