Skinner thrives during Scotland debut and is impressed by team-mate Hogg
Scotland debutant Sam Skinner admits he would love to link up with his new Dark Blues team-mate Stuart Hogg at Exeter Chiefs.
The Glasgow Warriors full-back has announced that he will leave Scotstoun in the summer after nine years with the club.
Speculation is already rife that the 26-year-old is heading south to Sandy Park to link up with Rob Baxter’s Premiership-leading Chiefs.
Skinner – who won his first Scotland cap in Saturday’s 54-17 drubbing of Fiji at Murrayfield – is none the wiser but he would not be surprised to see his club leading the pack of suitors for Hogg.
After making an impressive first appearances for Scotland on Saturday, the Chiefs lock said: “I haven’t had any conversations with Stuart, actually, but any club would love to have a player of his ability. I don’t know what’s going on with him, though.”
Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend was pleased to see Exeter’s former England Under-20 lock slot so effectively into the second row that he was named man of the match.
Townsend said: “Sam was very good. He was prominent, he looked to play rugby and made a couple of nice offloads. There was even a kick in there – I’m not sure we’ve seen that in his games for Exeter.
“It was great to see Sam doing a job in the tight and playing so well in the loose,” added Townsend, who knows Scotland will have step up their eighttry demolition job on Fiji if they are to stand any chance of halting South Africa next week.
The Scots were utterly ruthless as they blew away the Pacific Islanders, for whom Cornish Pirates’ Sam Matavesi started the match and played for an hour.
Tommy Seymour grabbed a hat- trick while Allan Dell, Fraser Brown, Sean Maitland, Jamie Ritchie and Adam Hastings also pounced as the Dark Blues made it 10 wins from their last 11 games in the capital, but Townsend confessed it will be an tougher prospect next Saturday when a Springboks side who toppled the All Blacks just two months ago arrive in Edinburgh.
The Scotland boss said: “To get eight tries and have the players feel that atmosphere was behind them is a huge boost going into next week, but the players are very aware that next week is a huge step up.
“South Africa, you could argue, are in the best two or three teams in the world, given their recent form. They’ve beaten New Zealand once and could have done it a second time. They have a huge pack, one which caused England a lot of problems last week. We believe they are playing a level of rugby that is rival to the best teams in the world right now.” Head coach Warren Gatland hailed his Wales players for digging deep after they ended their long losing run against Australia.
Wales’ 9-6 victory at the Principality Stadium on Saturday was their first over Australia since 2008 and came at the 14th attempt.
Dan Biggar’s 77th-minute penalty also gave Wales a seventh win on the bounce against all opponents – their longest unbeaten run under Gatland and best since 2004-05.
Six of Wales’ losses in that 13-Test Wallabies sequence had been by five points or less, and Gatland admitted: “I was struggling in the last few minutes.
“I thought it was deja vu – that we were going to lose in the last minute, but the boys dug deep.
“From a defensive point of view, it was the most comfortable I have ever felt against Australia.”
Exeter Chiefs prop Tomas Francis was in Wales’ starting XV.