Recalled Bradbury can still be a Scotland leader, claims Blair

Former Scotland captain Mike Blair believes Magnus Bradbury has the capabilities to lead his country as the young back rower’s swift rehabilitation continued with a recall to the Autumn Tests squad yesterday.

Bradbury, suspended and stripped of the captaincy by Edinburgh for getting himself injured while on a night out after a game last month, made a tryscoring return for the capital club on Saturday against Ospreys and with team-mates Neil Cochrane and Rory Sutherland joined up with Scotland at Oriam yesterday.

It is unlikely he will get back in the Scotland team so speedily, but it is a clear indication of what Gregor Townsend and the national coaching team feel about the 22-year-old.

“We still expect a lot of Magnus and he has still got the respect of the players, especially the Edinburgh guys who know him well,” said Blair, who operates as skills coach in Townsend’s team.

“We saw how he worked on his extras during the summer tour and he will hopefully fit in with us smoothly.

“He has obviously shown that he has leadership capabilities. We saw that over the summer in how he trained and how he pulled guys up with him (to his standards).

“Richard Cockerill at Edinburgh has obviously seen something in him as well. There was an incident and he has been reprimanded for that. He just needs to come back into the Scotland squad now and do what he does best.”

He believes Bradbury has already shown the strength of character to bounce back from his unwise episode.

“You saw that in the Ospreys game,” continued Blair.

“He has a lot of character. The way he plays he is a nofuss operator, he can just get on with things and prove his own ability. For a young guy the physical attributes he’s got are pretty impressive. He will only get better with time.”

Sutherland’s call-up comes after he has played barely two hours of competitive rugby after almost a year out through injury, but Blair doesn’t think there’s a loose-head crisis with three front-liners out and either the uncapped Darryl Marfo or Jamie Bhatti starting against Samoa.

“It is not as if Darryl and Jamie have not been playing regular rugby,” he said.

“Had it been the case they were only getting the occasional sub appearances you might look at that a little closer.

“I guess what we are looking from them is that consistency. These guys are quick learners and will adapt well to international rugby.”

Scotland will be without Ross Ford for the Tests as he withdrew with a pectoral muscle injury at the weekend.

They will seek to play the same way in all three matches in the autumn, hinted Blair.

“This first game is really important for us from a momentum point of view,” he said.

“We’ll look at the three games as a whole. Obviously we’ve not played since Fiji in the summer.

“We have had the training camp in August and last week as well and it’s important to get some good cohesion in our squad and in our team, so that’s something that we have thought about with the selection for Samoa.”

Magnus Bradbury, right, at training alongside Gregor Townsend.