Townsend relies on Paris personnel against Rennie’s rejuvenated Australia
Continuity has not always been Gregor Townsend’s watchword, but against an Australia side who have won their past five games, the Scotland head coach has named a team containing 14 of the starters who dramatically beat France on the final day of the Six Nations.
Only Lions loosehead prop Rory Sutherland, who was injured playing for Worcester Warriors last week but would have otherwise been selected, is missing for tomorrow’s game – Nick Haining was a late stand-in for Matt Fagerson in Paris.
If the only change from the Paris starting line-up is the inclusion of Edinburgh loosehead Pierre Schoeman, who wins his second cap after making his debut in last week’s 60-14 win over Tonga, there is considerable movement on the bench. A bout of illness means Stuart Mcinally is replaced by uncapped Sale hooker Ewan Ashman, while uncapped Bath speedster Josh Bayliss covers the back row. Kyle Steyn, who scored four tries against Tonga, covers outside centre and wing.
Scotland have beaten Australia home and away in their past two meetings, but Townsend admitted that he has watched with admiration as a new Wallaby coaching team of former Glasgow coach Dave Rennie, former Scotland assistant coach Matt Taylor and former Scotland scrummaging coach Petrus du Plessis have transformed Australia’s fortunes. The Wallabies now have five wins in a row to their name, including back-to-back victories over world champions South Africa.
“We have been playing games at club level so players will be getting battle hardened, some more than others,” said Townsend. “But the Australians have played the All Blacks seven or eight times in a two-year period and the world champions twice. They’ve been to Japan and Argentina, teams with different styles, and you improve with that exposure.
“We won’t be perfect on Sunday, but we just have to build that cohesion straight away. We’ve had two weeks’ training and just one game, but the players have bonded well, are training with energy, and communication has been high.”
That cohesion has been built with some training sessions so focused that Townsend had to stop yesterday’s early after two players came to blows, although he refrained from identifying them. “Our training sessions are pretty intense and we had to calm them down today as a couple of the guys were going at it,” he said. “Part of the reason our defence has been one of our strengths over the last year or two has been we make our training at a level where it’s hard for attacks and defences, so players are going to get annoyed. There was an edge today and there’s been a pace about our training this week.”
If Australia’s coaches are familiar with Scotland, that works both ways.
Scotland’s defence coach Steve Tandy was with the Waratahs previously, and given that the two sides last met when Scotland won 53-24 at Murrayfield in 2017, he is best placed to judge how to stymie the Wallabies’ new breed of young forwards, such as No8 Rob Valetini, blindside Peter Samu and hooker Folau Fainga’a. In that context, Townsend’s choice of Ashman and Bayliss as replacements is particularly interesting.
“Ewan combines strength and power in the set-piece because he’s a big hooker, with pace,” said Townsend of the 21-year-old Sale Sharks player, who was born in Toronto and raised in Cheshire but qualifies via his Edinburgh-born father and has been a stand-out for Scotland since under-16 level. “He’s a dynamic ball carrier and a real threat over the ball in defence.”
If Ashman’s muscularity and the prodigious ball-carrying he showed with Scotland under-20s is his calling card, fellow Anglo-scot Bayliss’s appeal is built around his resilience but largely his speed. “Australia’s going to be a good game for Josh,” said Townsend. “It’s going to be open, with both teams looking to move the ball, so Josh’s pace, his linkability in the wide channels, and his work rate really suit this game.”