Townsend set to make changes
After a marathon Six Nations Championship which b egan on the first day of February and ended on the last day of October, Greg or Townsend is ready to make changes as attention now turns to the Autumn Nations Cup.
The new eight-team tournament is designed to generate some much-need cash for inter nati on al unions following the cancellation of the autumn Tests. The likely absence of fans will limit hugely the amount of revenue which can be generated but there is at least a new TV deal with Amazon Prime Video and Channel 4. The eight sides will be split into two pools of four, with Scotland drawn alongside France, Fiji and Italy in Group B. Group A consists of England, Ireland, Wales and Georgia.
Prime Video will show all Scotland’ s group games, kicking off on Saturday, November 14 with an away fixture against Italy in a venue yet to be announced. The Scots then have
back-to -back matches at BT Murrayfield, against France on Sunday, November 22 and Fiji on Saturday, November 28.
The competition will finish on the weekend of December 5-6 when each team faces the country ranked in the same position in the opposite pool. The four play-off matches will be spread across four venues, with the Group A nations listed as the "home” teams. It means Georgia will face their opponents at Murrayfield, Ireland will play in the A viva Stadium, England at Twickenham, and Wales at Parc y Scarlets.
Scotland coach Greg or Townsend will use the competition to test the depth of his squad after a bruising encounter in Wales in which Scotland lost not one but two stand-offs.
Finn Russell’ s groin injury and Adam Hastings’ shoulder problem could rule out the pair for the whole of the competition and Townsend has already indicated he expects Duncan Weir or James Lang to take over in that position.
Townsend has also noted that Edinburgh' s South African stand-off J ac ova nd er Walt becomes Scottish qualified on residency grounds during the Autumn Nations Cup having arrived in the capital in November 2017.
“I don’t think I would use the word ‘experimentation’ but we will have to change the team because there are a couple of injuries and players maybe coming back from injury,” said the coach. “There are players coming into this tournament whose form merits a start or a chance off the bench.
“The changes will be because we think these players are good enough to help us move forward orc rea tea bit of competition or depth around a position or two. There are people who missed out to day who we would like to introduce, whether it’ s against Italy, France or Fiji. That’s the longterm aim. If we can have that 30 to 35-man squad where, just like the front row today, the quality is as good coming off the bench as started then that should make us stronger.
“But we will be picking what we believe is the best team to win each weekend. We have three different opponents and Italy, France and Fiji play different rugby, so that will be taken into account too.”