Townsend gives youth a chance again for autumn

SCOTLAND coach Gregor Townsend has kept faith with the bulk of his squad who were selected but unable to play in the summer, naming 19 of them in a group of 36 for a training day on Monday.

Planned Tests against Georgia and Romania and an ‘A’ international against England all had to be cancelled because of Covid concerns, and Townsend clearly feels that the largely youthful group deserve another look.

Eleven of the 19 are Glasgow Warriors players, including the uncapped Rory Darge and Ross Thompson, while the other eight are from Edinburgh. In all 14 members of the 36 are uncapped.

Those who were not involved in the summer but have been recalled include players such as hookers Fraser Brown and Stuart McInally, who were given time off to rest in the close season. Four others have been named in a Scotland squad for the first time: prop Pierre

Schoeman, lock Marshall Sykes and stand-off Charlie Savala, all of Edinburgh, and Sharks back-row forward Dylan Richardson, who was born and raised in South Africa but qualifies through having a Scottish-born father.

The surprise omission is Edinburgh scrum-half Ben Vellacott, who has been in excellent form since joining from Wasps in the summer. The Glasgow trio of Ali Price, George Horne and Jamie Dobie are preferred to the 26-year-old.

Scotland have four autumn internationals

in successive weekends from the end of this month, with the first, against Tonga on Saturday 30, falling outside the international window. That means that Townsend will be unable to call on his France- and England-based players for that game, although they will be available for the subsequent three.

The squad was announced yesterday by press release, but Townsend will have a press conference next week, when he announces his actual squad for the Autumn Nations series.