Rob Robertson Lang can be Scots’ surprise package
JaMeS lanG of Harlequins is the latest left-field pick for Scotland by Gregor townsend. let’s hope the former Wimbledon ball boy is a success.
the Scotland head coach is making a habit of picking players not on the radar in an effort to bring extra competition to the national team in the run up to the 2019 World cup.
Shortly after he took over, townsend capped leicester forward luke Hamilton — who has been linked with a move to Glasgow and edinburgh — and newcastle centre chris Harris.
namibian-born Byron McGuigan was 28 when he made his debut on the wing against new Zealand back in november.
edinburgh’s darryl Marfo had been a journeyman prop before he got a surprise call-up from townsend and came of age with a superb display in the same game against the all Blacks.
the Scotland head coach is trying out as many players as possible in the run up to the World cup to increase the depth of his playing pool and keep the rest of his squad on their toes.
Some of his more unexpected picks have come off — Marfo in particular — while the jury is out on the others.
lang is the latest that will sink or swim at international level. the 23-year-old is part of Scotland’s 33-man squad for the matches against canada, USa and argentina in June.
He was born in ashford in Kent and played at london Scottish before going to Bangor University and playing club rugby in Wales. He qualifies for Scotland through a grandparent. Wales had their eye on him as his dad is from Penarth.
lang played for the Scotland Under-18 team five years ago with the likes of Magnus Bradbury and Jamie Ritchie but didn’t graduate to the Under-20s and was never mentioned again in international terms until this week.
Former Scotland captain Rory lawson, who heads the SRU’s exile recruitment programme, deserves credit for keeping a close eye on his development.
lang has played ten times for Harlequins at fly-half, a position where townsend is not awash with options.
Remarkably, with eight centres to pick from, townsend is considering playing lang in the midfield rather than in his usual position of fly-half on the summer tour.
With Finn Russell rested, it would make more sense to try him at ten as adam Hastings is the only specialist fly-half travelling. Peter Horne and Blair Kinghorn can fill in there but lang deserves a shot to impress in his usual position.
testing him at international level a year before the World cup in either position is a good move, though, and hopefully he will turn out to be a real find.