Townsend must take gamble on Hastings
SCoTlANd head coach Gregor Townsend has to leave Finn russell at home and take the uncapped Adam hastings as his first choice fly-half on this year’s three-match summer tour.
That may sound a bold and risky move considering the 21-year-old’s lack of experience but, with the 2019 World Cup not far away, Townsend must establish a permanent understudy for russell.
Where better to find out if hastings is that man than by starting him in two relatively easy matches against Canada and the USA then in a tougher one against Argentina?
The Glasgow Warriors No10 will either sink or swim at international level. either way, throwing him in at the deep end will allow Townsend to find out if he is good enough.
russell has nothing to gain by going on the summer tour and needs a break at the end of the season.
he has been on the go since last June, when he was part of the previous Scotland summer tour before being called up by the British and Irish lions.
The last thing he needs is being dragged to Canada, the USA and Argentina in June.
Give him time to settle in at racing 92 over the summer rather than play him in international games where new talent deserves the chance to shine.
Moving to Paris from Glasgow Warriors will increase his workload and the price he has to pay for his £750,000 a year salary is knowing his new club will play him every week if they see fit. he needs time off before that happens.
edinburgh head coach richard Cockerill, when asked this week about Scotland No 10s, replied: ‘With respect, take Finn russell away and there is not a lot of depth, is there?’
That is a sad truth. You would have to say the next best fly-half for Scotland, as things stand, is scrum-half Greig laidlaw. he moved from nine to ten with great success when russell went off during Six Nations matches. Ideally, though, you would keep him on the pitch in his favoured position.
After all, you would never imagine Ireland No 9 Conor Murray shuffling across to play ten on a regular basis for his country in place of Johnny Sexton when he goes off. It shouldn’t have to happen at Scotland either with laidlaw and russell.
The only other contender for the No10 jersey up until now has been Peter horne, who is a better centre than fly-half and not the long-term solution.
Glasgow’s ruaridh Jackson and duncan Weir, who will join Worcester Warriors from edinburgh in the summer, are next in line but both are a long way down the pecking order.
That is why hastings, who is looked on as the coming man, has a great chance to leapfrog them by showing his worth on the summer tour and becoming russell’s understudy from now until the World Cup.