ROOKIE OLLIE IS GOING IN AT THE DEEP END
Townsend backs Smith to thrive on his senior debut
SCOTLAND head coach Gregor Townsend insists rookie full-back Ollie Smith can cope with the immense pressure he will be put under by Argentina in the third and deciding Test match in Santiago Del Estero tomorrow.
The 21-year-old newcomer, who is fifth in the international pecking order, comes in for his senior debut after tourists Rory Hutchinson and Kyle Rowe were both ruled out through injury.
Townsend accepts the Pumas will target the Glasgow Warriors youngster, who appeared for Scotland A against Chile in the first match of the tour. But he is confident Smith’s strength of character will see him through the biggest challenge of his fledgling career to date.
‘We think Ollie is ready,’ said the head coach, who gave first-choice full-back and skipper Stuart Hogg the summer off before Huw Jones withdrew from the squad with injury just prior to the trip to South America.
‘We have high expectations of him because of the way he’s been training and playing this year for Glasgow — and that suggests he’ll transfer that form into the Test match arena.
‘He’s shown his proactive nature on the playing field this year. He takes the game to the opposition with ball in hand and he’s an aggressive defender. He’s a young player, too. He was part of that Under-20s group from two seasons ago, along with Rory Darge, Ewan Ashman, Rufus McLean. There’s a big future ahead of him and we’ve been really impressed with what he’s done over the last 12 months.
‘On this tour he’s been one of our hardest workers in training, and it’s an important trait for a full-back to be constantly on the move in attack in defence.
‘He’s got a good left boot which gives the opposition defence something to think about, especially when we’ve got a rightfoot kicker at ten in Blair Kinghorn and a left-foot kicker at 15 in Ollie. He’s also a very good attacker where he will get lots of the ball.
‘If he gets targeted by Argentina in terms of his kicking game then that’s great, as it means he gets more touches of the ball. Argentina tend to kick long and they’ve obviously got a big threat with (Emiliano) Boffelli of Edinburgh at 15 but we’ve not seen that much of him outside of restarts in this series.’
Townsend, who makes eight changes from last Saturday’s 29-6 win in Salta, said he had never considered moving the more experienced Kinghorn to 15 rather than field the inexperienced Smith from the start.
‘Blair’s obviously played stand-off all season, and that’s the role we see him in,’ he said. ‘He moved back to full-back during the second Test and he’ll be covering the back three again this week and we obviously know he has played Test level in the back three.
‘Blair played very well last week when he went back to 15 and defensively he was excellent. But he had a very good game — a much improved game — at ten before he moved positions. We see him improving in training and learning more about this Argentina defence and what will be required this week, so it was likely Ollie was always going to start at 15.’
Scotland will be skippered by Hamish Watson for the first time, with the enforced changes coming at full-back where Smith steps in and Rufus McLean replaces the concussed Darcy Graham on the wing.
Townsend has also changed his second-row partnership, with last week’s captain Grant Gilchrist replaced by Jonny Gray and Scott Cummings in for Sam Skinner.
‘Scott and Jonny know each other well. They played at Glasgow for years and they complement each other in terms of playing styles,’ he said. ‘Jonny likes to work more in the closer areas, that’s his big strength. His work-rate, his defence, his physicality in that area.
‘Scott is more a player who accelerates onto the ball, really good at kick-chase and when he gets running off nine or the wider channels. They’ve worked well at the lineout calling.
‘Sam Skinner and Grant Gilchrist have a good complement, too. They played in the win in Paris last year and played together at the weekend, so we’re in a fortunate situation with the competition at second row and both Jonny and Scott are raring to go.’
Townsend’s decision to freshen up the second row opened the door for Watson to take over the captaincy.
‘Grant (Gilchrist) has had a long season and it was great he was able to lead the side at the weekend, play well and set the team up for a decider,’ he said. ‘In terms of captaincy, we had strong candidates but Hamish has grown and thrived in the leadership arena, and the responsibilities that require. He was very, very good last week and we just want to keep that momentum going from vice-captain to captain. We expect him to play even better this weekend.’
Asked why the Lions star is only taking the armband now at the age of 30 and with 50 caps behind him, Townsend replied: ‘Opensides tend to be unique individuals, let’s say, and they tend to play their own game, so you kind of leave them to do that.
‘They’ve got decisions to make and sometimes they are a little bit crazy, but other opensides can really take on the leadership role and it’s something Hamish mentioned during the Six Nations.
‘After we asked him if he’d like to be in our Thistle leadership group, we’ve seen him thrive with that responsibility. He’s so well respected, for who he is as a person, how he conducts himself off the field, how connected he is with the other players and how he plays. He’s been one of our most consistent players over the last three or four years.
‘To have him play alongside Rory Darge in the back row I’m sure is a big positive for Rory, and he’ll be learning from Hamish a lot, how he speaks to the players and how he plays.’