Scotland continuity key as Mcinally retains captaincy
3 FROM BACK PAGE
40-man squad before he makes the final cut to 31 on 3 September ahead of the last match of the series against the east Europeans at BT Murrayfield.
French-based half-backs Finn Russell and Greig Laidlaw won’t feature this weekend, with Adam Hastings handed the No 10 jersey and Edinburgh hooker Stuart Mcinally retaining the captaincy.
“Stuart was captain in our last two Six Nations games. He lifted the Calcutta Cup and we believe there is good continuity there,” said the coach.
“We are aware John Barclay was the captain the previous season but with John not playing as many games and no international games for 12 months we feel his position this week as vice-captain will be to focus on his game and also support Stuart alongside Stuart Hogg in that strong leadership group.”
Townsend said he was particularly looking forward to seeing how the Taylorjones centre combination shapes up.
“It could be [exciting], and so could other centre combinations that we have ready to go in the following games, and based on what we’ve seen in training,” said the coach.
“We’ve got a lot of competition in that area. Sam Johnson finished the Six Nations in great form and although he is not available just now [with a minor ankle injury] he should be back within a week or two.
“And you’ve got Peter Horne, who is a very experienced player for us, and Chris Harris, who’s been training really well. And Rory Hutchinson, who’s an exciting player who’s on the bench this week – he can cover any three of those midfield positions, and that’s what he’ll be doing this weekend.”
Townsend revealed that the current pool of players will now stay in place until that final World Cup squad is announced early next month.
“We made the decision last week to make that cut earlier,” he explained. “We felt it was fair to the group of players that ended up leaving the squad that we didn’t just have them here for another week to see if we did pick up any injuries after the first game.”