STAGE IS SET FOR NEXT GENERATION
Townsend fills his autumn Scotland squad with youth
NO matter the outcome of the Autumn Nations Series over these next few weeks, Gregor Townsend will surely reflect on 2021 with a degree of satisfaction.
It will be viewed as the year in which the ghosts of Twickenham 1983 stopped echoing throughout Scottish rugby. So, too, those of Paris 1999.
Under Townsend’s stewardship, those two long-awaited Six Nations victories against England and France set the platform for eight of our players to go on and become Lions in the summer.
The largest Scottish contingent in a generation was boosted further by the fact Townsend and Steve Tandy (Scotland defence coach) were on the coaching staff.
By all accounts, then, it has been a hugely productive year. Certainly, few would have blamed Townsend if he had sought to maintain a sense of status quo in his playing squad.
But the head coach has opted to blood a new generation of talent, with 12 uncapped players named for the games against Tonga, Australia, Japan and world champions South Africa.
The youthful squad is reflective of a coach who understands the value and potential of young players, having made his own Scotland debut at the age of 19.
Midway through a World Cup cycle, Townsend may have stopped short of a complete overhaul. But he’s clearly building for the future. Asked if he had half an eye on the tournament in France in two years’ time, he replied: ‘Maybe a quarter of an eye. It’s in our minds.
‘The Rugby World Cup is the biggest tournament over a four-year period. But the games in November are massive, played at home, against the top five in the world.
‘We can’t take our eyes off that, nor the Six Nations, which is the best tournament outside the World Cup.’
Townsend faces a balancing act. There is a need to win games in the short term, but also to build a team capable of competing at the World Cup.
There is no Sean Maitland, now 33, in this new-look squad. Nor is there a place for 35-year-old WP Nel; two stalwarts for many a long year.
Duncan Weir, 30, also misses out, with Ross Thompson jumping ahead of him in the pecking order for both Glasgow Warriors and now Scotland. Richie Gray, 32, is not included, despite a long list of injury problems in the second row which sees brother Jonny miss out along with Scott Cummings. Glasgow skipper Ryan Wilson, 32, is another notable absentee.
Between them, Maitland, Nel, Weir, Gray and Wilson amount to just shy of 250 caps worth of experience left on the sidelines. Having now established himself as first-choice fly-half at Glasgow, Thompson, 22, will lead the new wave of talent.
He is closely followed by winger Rufus McLean, flanker Rory Darge, both 21, and 20-year-old scrum-half Jamie Dobie.
The trio of Thompson, McLean and Darge have been Glasgow’s three best players so far this season, helping the Warriors to three wins from their opening four games in the United Rugby Championship.
Thompson has the makings of a classy operator at No 10, while McLean’s electric pace has terrorised defenders.
Darge has drawn comparisons with Hamish Watson for his powerful, ferocious work in the back row.
With next weekend’s Tonga game falling outside the official player release window, Townsend will only be able to select Scottish-based players.
That will boost the chances of the Glasgow quartet. Yet, it was put to Townsend yesterday that they would actually be worthy of selection in any case such has been their early-season form.
‘Yes, 100 per cent,’ he agreed. ‘It has been great to see young guys grabbing their opportunity.
‘These are players who were involved in the same Scotland Under-20s team a couple of seasons ago.
‘They’ve not only played well to stay in the Glasgow team, they’ve won man-of-the-matches on occasions.
‘So it is great to see that form — and we hope and expect that to be transferred into the international environment if they get that opportunity.
‘Those opportunities would have happened in the summer (only for the tour to be cancelled). So it’s great to have a fourth test, even if it’s restricted to players in Scotland.
‘Some of them are in great form and will put pressure on established players.
‘It’s now up to them to grab that opportunity if they’re given it in the Tonga game to put the players for the Australia game under pressure.
‘There are players who may not be starters now, but can grow and become starters as we head to the World Cup.
‘For that to happen, we’ve got to give them opportunities first in the training environment, but also in test matches.’
Townsend confirmed that Thompson and Edinburgh’s Blair Kinghorn will compete for the fly-half jersey, with Finn Russell and Adam Hastings coming into the mix post-Tonga.
He added: ‘We are in a really good position that we can leave two experienced 10s out — Duncan Weir and Jaco van der Walt, who has now picked up an injury.
‘Both are playing well, but we have brought in two players who we think can thrive in this environment and have much more to bring in their games in the future.’
With ‘future’ very much being the key word, the same can also be said of Gray, Wilson, Maitland and Nel.
Townsend said: ‘WP is still playing really well. I thought he had a really good game for Edinburgh at the weekend.
‘But we want to look throughout this four weeks at players who can replace WP when it comes to Six Nations time.’
Among the other uncapped players are Sale Sharks hooker Ewan Ashman, Bath flanker Josh Bayliss, Glasgow centre Sione Tuipulotu, along with Edinburgh’s Luke Crosbie, Jamie Hodgson, Pierre Schoeman and Marshall Sykes.
Most intriguing, though, is the selection of South African born back-rower Dylan Richardson of the Sharks, who Townsend encountered on the Lions tour.
‘We’ve known about Dylan since he was 18,’ explained the head coach. ‘His dad had got in contact, or we had got in contact with his dad a number of years ago and we’ve been aware he’s Scottish qualified since then.
‘He played really well for South Africa at the Under-20s World Championship two years ago. He was a hooker who was playing in the back row then, but he has decided to go for the back row as his No 1 position.
‘We saw how well he played for the Sharks in their various competitions and also against the Lions.
‘He played twice in a week against the Lions and we were really impressed by him. There were conversations around: “Would you commit to Scotland?” He’s got the heritage link and over the last few weeks he’s made that commitment.’
Barring any disasters, Tonga and Japan should be swept aside with minimal fuss. The games against South Africa and Australia, however, will offer a far sterner test.
Townsend added: ‘You want to build on the good performances we’ve seen. But the major one is belief.
‘We go into games now expecting to win, if we perform well, we’ve got the players to beat anybody.
‘That belief has been growing through experiences like winning at Twickenham and Paris. But other experiences, those of Lions tours and what they’re doing at their clubs.
‘Belief is what will drive this group to success over the next few years.’