We’re still in it to win it
Townsend must tinker but is eyeing Autumn momentum
WITH the i njuries to Finn Russell and Adam Hastings ruling them out of Scotland’s Autumn Nations Cup campaign, Gregor Townsend was always going to have to shake up his team selection. The main beneficiary will be Duncan Weir. The Worcester Warriors fly-half has not started for his country since 2016, but is likely to take the No 10 shirt for next weekend’s opener against Italy in Florence.
Weir has been in impressive form for Worcester over the past 18 months, with Townsend of the opinion that the 29-year-old is now playing the best rugby of his career.
Sam Johnson is also likely to return to the national side, having made his comeback from injury for Glasgow Warriors over the past fortnight against Ospreys and Leinster.
Huw Jones is another who could benefit from the squad rotation, with Townsend admitting he has been impressed by his reinvention at full-back for Glasgow.
Indeed, Jones has arguably been Glasgow’s best player so far this season and will surely feature for Scotland at some point over the coming weeks.
Yet, despite a string of changes also likely to be made to the pack up front, Townsend flatly rejects the idea that his team selection will be ‘experimental’.
What underpins everything will be a desire for Scotland to keep their foot on the gas and build on their current momentum.
Last weekend’s rousing victory in Wales made it four wins on the bounce — and Townsend is determined to develop a winning culture among his squad.
Of the changes he’s likely to make,
Townsend explained: ‘Some of that will happen with the injuries, some will happen with players coming back from injuries like Sam Johnson. I’d imagine we might see him over the next couple of weeks.
‘I was impressed with how Sam played for Glasgow (against Leinster) last Monday. It was good to see him playing his second game.
‘In his first one, it was natural that he would struggle a little bit for fitness but he was in much better shape against Leinster and got involved a lot in the game.
‘Matt Fagerson had been rehabbing the ankle since the injury against Georgia. We’ll see where he is in the next couple of days and decide whether he’ll be available for Italy.
‘If it’s not Italy, we think he’ll be back for France.
‘We’d like to give players in that front five an opportunity if they’re worthy of it — and the guys coming off the bench are certainly made big impacts over the last couple of weeks.
‘But we’ve got to make sure we’ve still got that cohesion from game to game and who we select for that game is appropriate to the opposition.
‘One goal we have is to get through these four games with winning as our primary target, but also having looked at a couple of players in each position.
‘That’s already happening, 26 or 27 players have played in the first two games so that number’s going to go over 30.
‘It might not be that everybody in our 35-man squad plays over the next four weeks but I’m sure we’ll get close to that number.’
With the injuries to two key players like
Russell and
Hastings, it may become a necessity for Townsend to select operators who can cover a variety of roles.
That element of versatility could well go in Jones’ favour, having been successfully redeployed from the centre to full-back over the past couple of months.
‘He’s played well,’ said Townsend of the
Glasgow star. ‘When Huw is confident and looking to get on the ball, he shows what a dangerous attacker he can be.
‘I think his positioning has been really good at full-back and to adapt to that relatively new position shows he’s a very good rugby player
‘Not every game will go smoothly for him because it is a new position. But it helps having someone like Huw back playing well and full of confidence. It helps with the options we have in our back line.’
With both Glasgow and Edinburgh set to be in Pro14 action tomorrow night, Townsend admitted it’s unlikely that Scotland will release too many players back to the club sides for Monday night fixtures.
Both Glasgow and Edinburgh are scheduled to be playing regularly on Monday nights over the coming weeks in November.
With Scotland facing back-toback games against Italy, France and Fiji i n that period, the club sides might have to cope without essentially all of their international players.
‘We’ve been doing it (releasing players) in the last few weeks, but the move to the Monday nights makes things problematic for us, given that our big training days are Mondays and Tuesdays,’ said the Scotland head coach.
‘No players would be able to train with us if they were playing for their clubs on the Monday.’
Of the test his team will face against Italy, Townsend added: ‘They’ve changed their game slightly. ‘At the beginning of the Six Nations, they were moving the ball from deep a lot and were very ambitious. They still have that ambition within their game, but they’re looking to kick more.
‘They always have a good forward strength, a good front row strength and they’re a tough team to play against. We know we’ll have to improve from Wales to beat them.
‘They’ll see a game in Florence as an opportunity to get a good home win — they beat South Africa in the same stadium a few years ago.’