Stop treating Scotland as dark horses – this will be a three-way fight
Townsend’s side have the pace and strength in depth to challenge England and Ireland
Alot of people have already decided that the Six Nations will be a two-way fight between England and Ireland, but I would put Scotland into that mix. It is time to stop treating them as dark horses. This is a proper team who play the best brand of rugby anywhere in the northern hemisphere. In the autumn, they smashed an Australia whom England had just squeezed past in the last quarter, and ran the All Blacks to the last play of the game.
Their back division is brimming with talent. What Scotland have traditionally lacked is pace. Now they have it in abundance. You saw that in Glasgow’s Champions Cup win over Exeter, when Tommy Seymour scored one of the tries of this or any other season.
That all came from Finn Russell identifying a mismatch in his own 22 and then showing the collective confidence to exploit it. That so many of the backs have played together at Glasgow and have been coached by Gregor Townsend is a huge advantage. I know other pundits have compared Russell unfavourably to Owen Farrell, questioning whether he has that same mental fortitude. Yet to play the game the way he does, attacking opportunities whenever he spots them, takes serious courage. Of course you have to play territory occasionally but I love fly-halves whose primary instinct is to seek space and opportunities.
There is no doubt Russell and Stuart Hogg are integral to the way Scotland play. An injury to either may end their hopes. Yet what is different this year compared to so many others is that Scotland now have serious depth in their back division. Townsend will have quite a few headaches in selection, not least at scrum-half, where he must choose between Ali Price and Greig Laidlaw. This is arguably his most important choice, because Price and Laidlaw sit at opposite ends of the scrum-half spectrum. Price is all about speed and service, whereas Laidlaw is far more of a game-controller and is one of the best box-kickers around. Laidlaw is a former captain and by far their most experienced back, but I hope Townsend goes with Price, as the conductor to their up-tempo game.
There are two big questions hovering over Scotland. The first is how are they going to cope at the scrum? Every country has injury problems, but for Scotland to be without three hookers, two tightheads and three looseheads is particularly unfortunate. They have six front-rowers with five caps or fewer and have had to call
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