Maitland returns eager to play his part in coach’s brand of fast-tempo rugby

Wing Sean Maitland has been enjoying getting a first proper taste of the Scotland set-up under Gregor Townsend and is eager to add his talents to the fast-tempo style the coach is looking to foster.

The 29-year-old, who will be winning his 29th cap against Australia on Saturday, hasn’t played for Scotland since getting injured in the France game during the Six Nations, missing the summer tour with a further ankle problem he picked up playing for Saracens, but he goes straight back into the starting XV to face the Wallabies. Maitland returned for Saracens in the 23-17 Premiership loss at Gloucester last weekend but showed Townsend enough to earn an immediate return to the team, with Lee Jones dropping out and the versatile Sale man Byron Mcguigan covering on the wing.

“The way we train, everything is so much sharper and Gregor wants us to play some quick rugby,” said Maitland, who worked with Townsend during his time at Glasgow. “On Saturday, the boys were chucking the ball around and the All Blacks were out on their feet. Just from training, it has been raised up a couple of levels and I am all for it being in the backs, you want to get your hands on the ball as many times as you can.

“A lot more is done at high speed. There’s no sort of dead time. The session’s been planned in terms of how long each task is done, but it’s just that everything is done at high speed really, which is great because we want to play some fast rugby and the only way to do it is to train like that. At high pace, it’s been tough, but it’s been good.”

Maitland said that there was never any chance of him coming straight back into the national set-up before getting a run-out.

“No, I hadn’t played for six weeks, so it was always a case of playing for Sarries, getting some game time under my belt and obviously then rejoining the boys,” he said.

“When I got injured I was on that fine mark of not knowing whether or not I was going to be involved and whether I was going to come up, so I was aiming for that Gloucester game.”

Maitland may not have been involved against the All Blacks, but he is well aware that the challenge now is to back the performance up and play as well, if not better, against the Wallabies.

“Obviously, when you’ve reached that intensity against the best team in the world and come so close, I guess people say there’s that expectation that you have to maintain that level and we know that.

“We don’t want to be remembered as having come so close, starting slow against Samoa and then nearly beating the best team in the world. We don’t want to take our foot off the throat.”