No time to dwell on selection ahead of final Test
IMAGINE the phone call where you are told you are not wanted for the biggest tournament in the world but you are expected to turn up and put your body on the line in four days’ time.
Afterwards, most of your teammates will head for the plane that will take them to the Rugby World Cup in Japan, while you head back to your club.
That is exactly the position that some of the Scotland squad will find themselves in when Gregor Townsend, the head coach, calls round today to tell his players who has made the cut for Japan and who has not.
“We got back from Georgia at four in the morning, we won’t make the decision overnight,” Townsend said before the final selection meeting. Once the decisions are made they will then have to decide who will play in the final warm-up match, the return game against Georgia at Murrayfield on Friday, and there could be some shocks.
“Some players will come into our [Murrayfield] squad who are not in the 31,” Townsend admitted.
“They may be involved in the [match day] 23 after missing out [on the Rugby World Cup]. If that’s the case, they’ll get an opportunity to play for Scoland and show us they’re ready if we do get injuries out at the World Cup.”
On the plus side, he does expect to have most of his injured players back meaning that from the 40-man training group only Fraser Brown faces the prospect of travelling to Japan without having played over the last month.
It does mean, however, that Townsend and his advisors have had to decide on whether or not to take Jonny Gray and Magnus Bradbury before they have had a chance to play. Both will be in the squad on Friday night, but that is three days after the World Cup party is announced in a ceremony at Linlithgow palace.
Both Bradbury and Gray were with the squad in Tbilisi and even warmed up with the team that played and won handsomely, 44-10, five tries to one.
“They are both in contention for next week, but obviously we need to find out who is in our 31 first,” Townsend said. “We wanted these guys with us to see what they were able to do in terms of their availability, not just for next week but for the World Cup.
“It would have been great if Jonny and Magnus had played in one of the first three games. There are players who have played and put their hands up, but Jonny is in a position where he’s started most of our last two years in the second row.
“Magnus will be a conversation and a tough selection, because Matt [Fagerson] went well against Georgia and Josh [Strauss] came on and played well. Blade [Thomson] and Ryan [Wilson] played well last week [against France] too.”
In fact, Gray was pretty much inked in from day one and realistically only had to prove his fitness to be picked. Bradbury, however, sufferers from being in the most competitive position in the squad.
With Sam Skinner out of the picture, it looks as though Townsend may take three locks and six back rowers with one being asked to double up as the fourth lock – a role that Blade Thomson seems perfectly suited for after playing a healthy chunk of his Super Rugby in the second row.
On both form and experience, you would expect Hamish Watson, John Barclay and Ryan Wilson to go as well, leaving Jamie Ritchie, Matt Fagerson and Josh Strauss up against Bradbury for the two remaining spots. Unlike Bradbury, the other three have been playing while he has to rely on his performances late on in the Six Nations.
What has encouraged Townsend, in general terms, however, is that last weekend, in a game he saw as something of a dress rehearsal for the key World Cup game against Japan, the players delivered in terms of both skill and physicality.
“It was big home crowd, a very noisy one even though it wasn’t full,” he pointed out. “Yokohama will be full and though Japan play different rugby to Georgia, it’s again a team we’re not used to playing.
“If we focus on getting our systems and detail right and also on being very respectful of the opposition and what they bring – matching that – then you put yourself in a good position to win.
“We have to keep those standards up now. We can’t slip off next week, because Georgia will get some confidence out of the second half on Saturday. We will also need those standards really high when we play Ireland [in the first World Cup match].” TODAY promises to be one of the most stressful of Darcy Graham’s 22 years on the planet.
Along with all the other members of the Scotland training squad, he is waiting to hear if he has made the final cut for the Rugby World Cup and can’t take anything for granted.
“It will be a nerve-wracking time for me and the family no doubt but if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be,” he said. “This is obviously my first time being involved in a World Cup training squad, so I’m really excited and just hoping I’ve done enough.
“Against France in Nice, I never got on to much ball. So against Georgia I wanted to get my hands on the ball and show Gregor what I can do. I saw a fair bit of ball and I’m happy with how I performed.”
He had every right to he happy. He had shown up well in defence, made a few breaks and finished it all off by scoring a classic winger’s try, racing past the defence to touch down Finn Russell’s deft kick.
“It’s always good scoring for your country,” he said. “You never take that for granted, it’s always memories that will stick. That’s a winger’s job to score tries and I enjoy it. I love playing with Finn because he’s just quality, absolute world-class. I was calling for the kick through. They were up flat and there was nobody in behind. It’s just about communicating that space.”
It was part of a thoroughly satisfying evening for Scotland, many of whom had been involved in the debacle in Nice two weeks earlier and used the occasion to redeem their reputations.
With five tries – locks Ben Toolis and Scott Cummings getting their first Test tries at the start and finish, Rory Hutchison showing superb awareness to grab another two and Graham completing the count – they were value for their 44-10 win.
In many ways it was just about the perfect game for the Scots, a flamboyant first half followed by a gutsy second when Georgia monopolised possession but only once found thier way past the blue defence when Kakha Asieshvili went over.
The maul was penalised a couple
Once the decisions were made they will then have to decide who will play in the final warm-up match, and there could be some shocks