Knocks galore, but none likely to affect line-up to face Australia
There was no shortage of Scotland players carrying knocks after their match against Italy in the Singapore National Stadium, but the initial assessment was that they should all recover in plenty of time to be available for selection against Australia on Saturday.
With the Wallabies also having won comfortably over Fiji, scoring five tries in the process just as Scotland did in their victory against Italy, there is no doubt that this is going to be the key match of the tour and coach Gregor Townsend is looking to pick a full-strength side.
Having rested Jonny Gray and given Hamish Watson another week to recover from his groin niggle, he is likely to add both to the match-day squad for Sydney.
They left Singapore only a few hours after playing, so the full assessment has had to wait until after they arrive
in Sydney, with Tim Swinson, of those who played, and John Hardie, who got a back spasm in the warm-up and dropped out, the ones he will be most anxious about.
“Tim [Swinson] carried a little knock earlier the week so we were pleased he played. He then got another knock on the knee but I think he will be OK,” said Townsend. “Tim Visser got a bang that we will look at.”
A major plus for Townsend was getting a lot of players into action who have missed chunks of the season with injuries. He added: “Matt Scott hasn’t played much in the past two months. Josh Strauss hasn’t played for almost six months. WP Nel has played two games in six months. It was a big bonus getting Magnus Bradbury off the bench.
“These players now have match fitness and will be in the mix for selection for next week,” he added.
He was also delighted with the experiment of playing Duncan Taylor at full back. The Saracen has played there for his club but only rarely. That he had a hand in two of the Scotland tries and tracked back ferociously to stop an Italian try showed his value.
“We saw what he could do in terms of offloading and running support lines,” Townsend added. “I thought he did a really good job. Though he played a couple of games for Saracens at the end of the season he is another who has not played that much rugby in the past two months.”