ARE SCOTLAND ON RIGHT PATH?
Route to the World Cup starts here as Townsend rolls the dice on side’s future
ALL roads now lead to Marseille, where a Springbok has wandered out on to the plains at the Stade Velodrome and caught Scotland’s gaze.
For that is the prism through which everything will now be viewed over these next 12 months, as Gregor Townsend and his players prepare to face reigning champions South Africa in their World Cup opener on September 10 next year.
The prism also carries a tinge of emerald green, with Ireland lurking ominously just over the horizon for Townsend’s men.
The reality is that Scotland will have to beat at least one of those two teams if they are to have any chance of progressing from Pool B of the World Cup.
Quite how they do that remains unclear. But, for now, Townsend obviously feels like he has a cunning plan up his sleeve.
Is it viable? No, not really. Does it hold much credibility or public faith? Again, no. Yet, nevertheless, here we are.
Much like one of Baldrick’s infamous plans, Townsend’s unwavering faith in Blair Kinghorn has been allowed to march with ill-deserved confidence into the narrative of Scottish rugby.
As things stand, it looks like Kinghorn could well be the starting fly-half against the Springboks in the World Cup — and many fans would justifiably view that as a frightening prospect.
Townsend doesn’t much like it when he is asked about ‘experimentation’. He views it as a dirty word, and one which is not appropriate in the context of coaching elite-level sport.
But that’s exactly what this is. In consultation with the coaching staff at Edinburgh, Townsend was part of the decision to convert Kinghorn from full-back to fly-half at the start of last season.
Now, over a year down the line, fans have yet to see anything from Kinghorn to suggest that he can cut it at 10 in the Test arena.
That could, of course, change against Australia this evening. But, with the head coach losing faith among the fans, it’s hard not to view the Kinghorn experiment as a Frankenstein’s monster for Townsend (right).
It is impossible to escape the feeling that Townsend’s tenure has become intertwined with acts of self-sabotage.
Finn Russell has been axed, a bizarre decision which turned this Autumn Test series into a soap opera before a minute of rugby had been played.
It feels entirely in keeping with much of what has happened in Scottish rugby over the past two years that there should be such a public mess involving one of Scotland’s best players. It does not inspire confidence that, only a year out from the World Cup, we are still ‘experimenting’ and fumbling around trying to put square pegs in round holes. Russell wouldn’t have played tonight in any case, with Townsend only able to select Scottish-based players due to the game falling outside the official Test window. So Kinghorn must use this as an opportunity and a platform to show that he is capable of hurting opponents and controlling a game. True, it might be unfair to judge everything he does in comparison with Russell. There are few fly-halves in world rugby who can get near the Racing 92 star when he’s at his best. But this is the narrative the head coach has now set with his non-selection of Russell. If Kinghorn is being judged to an impossibly high standard, then that is a problem of Townsend’s making. The other major headline to emerge from the squad selection last week was the decision to strip Stuart Hogg of the captaincy, with Jamie Ritchie now skipper instead. Another bold call from a head coach who has quite obviously chosen to roll the dice and shake things up, with a view to regaining some sort of form and momentum. Australia are first up in a fourmatch Autumn series, with Fiji, New Zealand and Argentina to follow over the next few weeks. If things don’t go to plan, it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that Scotland could lose three of their four games. Can’t live with Finn, can’t live without Finn. Then again, you could just as easily make a case for them winning three of the four and thereby easing some of the pressure on Townsend. The Wallabies do not carry the same fear factor of old. Townsend has beaten them on all three occasions he has faced them as head coach. Whatever his methods, a team coached by Townsend seems to be kryptonite to the Wallabies. The greenand-gold jersey just seems to lose a little bit of its sparkle. That run included a 15-13 victory at Murrayfield last year, an impressive result against an Australia team who had been on a five-game winning streak, including two victories over South Africa. Scotland hold the whip hand over the Wallabies at the moment and, if they can continue this sequence, it would be the first time in their history they have ever won four in a row against the men from Down Under. As always, styles make fights. While last year’s match was unexpectedly tame, the prospect of a Townsend team going up against one coached by Dave Rennie should, in theory, be a thriller. Both coaches are renowned for their teams playing an expansive, attacking style of rugby. But the Wallabies have lost their spark of late. They have slipped to an all-time low of ninth in the world rankings, three places below Scotland. This time last year, Australia were ranked third. Rennie’s side are struggling for form and are also without the services of star flyhalf Quade Cooper due to injury.
Murrayfield has never been a happy hunting ground for Rennie. During his time at Glasgow Warriors, he lost all four derbies against Edinburgh at the national stadium.
Coupled with the defeat for Australia last year, he has never actually won a game at Murrayfield, a curious stat for someone who spent three fairly successful years working in Scottish rugby.
But that is merely a sub-plot as the Autumn series gets underway. Come half-past five this evening, all eyes will be fixed on Scotland, and inevitably Kinghorn.
If the fans are to get onboard with the idea of him going into a World Cup as Scotland’s fly-half, there must come a point when we see tangible evidence to support such a theory.
Plainly, there’s no time like the present.