PATRIOT GAMES
sportsmail Townsend fights English bid to court ‘dual’ Scots
GREGOR Townsend says he faces an increasingly tough fight to keep players who are eligible for Scotland out of England’s clutches.
The national team head coach believes rugby is merely catching up with football when it comes to cross-border battles for ever-younger prospects.
Townsend has already lost a few high-profile names to Eddie Jones, notably teenager Cameron Redpath — son of his ex-Scotland team-mate Bryan — and Gary Graham, whose dad George also wore the dark blue with pride.
With a nod towards a football landscape that has seen the SFA and FA fight over Karamoko Dembele and, more recently, Scott McTominay, Townsend said: ‘When good players — and Bryan’s son is a very good player — come on the scene now, they are maybe getting noticed before they even play for their professional clubs.
‘We had an excellent performance from our Under-18 team a couple of weeks ago, our Under-20s had an excellent year and I’m sure that not just club representatives were watching these players.
‘National coaches would have been watching — and agents, too. That’s now the environment, as it probably has been in football for the past 20 or 30 years. We have to do a good job to persuade players that playing for Scotland is the right thing for their careers.
‘You have more competitors in the market. We know about Gary Graham, Ben Vellacott, players who played for Scotland Under-20s and have been included in England squads.
‘Maybe the “Scottish” players are more on the horizon for England than before, which is a credit to them. Or maybe England and other nations are just being more competitive, making sure dual-qualified players start playing regularly for their professional teams, and inviting them to train and go on tours to persuade them to be with them.
‘I don’t think that would have been the case five years ago.
‘From our perspective, we obviously wanted to make sure we did that job as thoroughly as possible. Having a scouting network is about trying to make sure we don’t miss anybody. Maybe England are putting more emphasis on it than before.’
Townsend hopes there is still a chance that Redpath, especially, will be open to an about-turn — and wouldn’t rule out another crack at Graham. He said: ‘Cam is just 18 and has a big season ahead of him next year, leaving school and becoming a professional, joining that Sale group full-time.
‘I’m sure he’s going to have a busy summer, whatever tour he’s on, whether he’s with England Under-20s in the World Cup or if Eddie Jones takes him to South Africa with England. ‘Of course, if he becomes a better player, which we all hope he does, and gets on to the horizon of playing international rugby, I would love him to play for Scotland like his dad did.’ Townsend, who yesterday named six uncapped players in a 33-man squad for the summer tour of Canada, the USA and Argentina, revealed that Stuart McInally will captain the touring team while naming one new ‘Anglo’ in his squad — Harlequins stand-off-centre James Lang.
‘He is Scottish-qualified and he got involved with Harlequins last season,’ revealed the ex-Glasgow coach, whose other uncapped call-ups are Lewis Carmichael, Matt Fagerson, Adam Hastings, James Ritchie and George Horne.
‘He has that ball-carrying ability and his biggest strength is his ability to break tackles.
‘But his ability to play ten means we have a second receiver, a second kicker. That’s something we want to explore.’
Townsend has no intention, meanwhile, of letting forwards coach Dan McFarland leave to become Ulster head coach without serving the nine months left on his SRU contract.
‘It’s disappointing, always, when someone you work closely with moves away,’ he admitted. ‘But it’s obviously an opportunity for Dan to become a head coach and we’ll have to adapt and move on.
‘He’s still working with us for the next nine months and he’ll be on tour. Carl Hogg’s joined us for our coaching meetings and him and Dan will share responsibilities on this tour.
‘But we need to look ahead and see who will replace Dan when he does go to Ulster. The plan is nine months, which is January 21, before the Six Nations, and we have to have someone in before then.’