LET’S GET TOWN’ TO BUSINESS...
GREGOR Townsend insisted the 15 players he has selected to face
South Africa have “earned the right” to start together as he challenged his burgeoning Scotland team to deliver on the biggest stage of all.
The head coach named a starting line-up yesterday with no surprises as key duo Darcy Graham and Zander Fagerson returned from injury and suspension respectively for the World Cup Pool B opener against the world champions tomorrow.
Townsend believes the sense of “cohesion” within the team he has picked will stand them in good stead for the showdown in the late-summer heat of Marseille.
“It’s been the team that has played (together) in the main,” he said.
“The majority of the players have played together all year. A couple of players missed the Six Nations, Rory Darge and Darcy Graham who are back fit and back with us.
“It’s a team that deserves to go out there. They have earned the right to start in such an important fixture because of the way they have played and the way they have trained.
“We have built a lot of cohesion over the last two or three months by training with certain combinations week after week.
Benefits
“We’ve seen the benefits of doing that transfer into the warm-up games and now it’s about delivering the most complete game we have done this year.”
Scotland go into the World Cup as dark horses for the Webb Ellis Cup having emerged as best of the rest behind the heavyweight quartet of Ireland, South Africa, France and New
Zealand.
Several players in Townsend’s team go into the global showpiece at the top of their game and the head coach is confident they can produce collectively when it matters most.
“It’s the biggest opportunity you’ll get: a World Cup game, playing the world champions,” he said ahead of Sunday’s showdown.
“We believe we’ve been building to our best performance — and I know that’s a continual journey and we’ll say it again as we go towards the
Tonga game — but really this is where it’ll count for our players to deliver what they have been delivering in training and what they have been delivering in other games we’ve played this year, and we have every faith they will be able to do that.”
Townsend has no worries about his players’ temperament as they prepare for a huge occasion in front of 67,000 people in the Marseille heat.
“That’s the job for us as coaches, the senior players and the players who have been there before, to be calm and to calm others,” he said.
“But there is an expectation that it’s going to be a very emotional and exciting build-up.”