Tongan test will tell us a lot about new kids on block

It has been a long time between drinks for the Scotland rugby team... 218 days to be precise since they last played an international game of rugby and what a game it was, too!

It was the Covid-delayed Six Nations match against France when Scotland won the game at the very death after Duhan van der Merwe crashed over to score.

It was a crazy encounter but one that meant Gregor townsend’s team bookended their Six Nations with away wins in London and Paris, beating England and France for the first time since 1983 and 1999 respectively. Quite some achievement.

Covid issues then meant the planned summer matches were cancelled, so the only Scottish players to get any meaningful international rugby were the eight who were selected for the Lions tour to South Africa.

Although the tour was not successful for the Lions, it was for most of the Scots selected who either improved or maintained their reputations as international players.

We also had two of the Lions coaching team in townsend and Steve tandy, and it will be great to see over the coming month how they have evolved and, hopefully, improved from that whole experience in South Africa.

It was a tough tour, with easy wins against poor provincial sides before a fortuitous victory for the Lions in the first test was followed by two very disappointing defeats in the final two games.

the style of game was very conservative if I am being kind, boring if I am not, and most definitely not what you would expect from a team coached by townsend.

What I am really excited about is that we have not had a coach return from working with the Lions to coach Scotland since Jim telfer back in 1997.

It was a great learning experience for both townsend and tandy to work with players such as Owen Farrell, Alun Wyn Jones and Conor Murray, and see how players from other countries implement their rugby philosophy.

the lack of a summer tour meant that, with such a large number of Scots with the Lions, a number of young and emerging players missed out on the opportunity of easing into international rugby.

I have no doubt that most of the players who will make their debuts today, either starting or from the bench, would have taken part in the summer tour matches against Georgia and Romania.

What is exciting for them all now is that they will get their first starts today at Bt Murrayfield — and they all deserve it.

I love it when young kids that you have watched for many years develop into international players. two of those are Rufus McLean and Jamie Dobie.

they were at school at the same time as my daughter and I watched them from midway through their secondary schooling and was impressed from the outset.

Rufus stood out because he was so quick. He had proper gas but he did so with such balance and poise and good game sense.

Jamie was a very talented young scrum-half who did the basics very well but was also tough as old boots.

Both deserve their chance today, as do the other debutants Sione tuipulotu, Pierre Schoeman, James Hodgson, Marshall Sykes, Luke Crosbie and Ross thompson.

Eight new caps — and I am presuming that all the players on the bench will be used as is the norm these days — is a lot of new blood to come into the team but it is definitely the right game to do this.

there is no doubt that after tonga today, the games get tougher, with Australia, South Africa and Japan to follow, so this is the game to see how the new talent cope with international rugby.

there is huge experience on the field to help the debutants with returning Lions Zander Fagerson, Hamish Watson and Ali Price alongside Jamie Ritchie, who will co-captain with Price.

I am sure Scotland will win this game but it will be a real test to beat a tongan side that they won’t know much about. there is so much analysis done on opposition now that each player will know what his opposite number will do in most situations. Not with tonga.

the analysts will have struggled to put together meaningful clips, which is good as the players will need to play what is in front of them and adapt accordingly.

tonga are not the team they have been in the past. Do you remember them beating us back in 2012?

I think Andy Robinson will as it cost him his job, but I don’t envisage any issues today and expect a big win for Scotland and their many debutants!

Scotland will win but it is going to be a real challenge