Horne has earned the right to start for Scots
George Horne has lived in the shadow of greig Laidlaw and Ali Price long enough. And the forthcoming Six Nations should be the moment he grabs his opportunity to become first-choice Scotland scrum-half, following Laidlaw’s international retirement.
There isn’t much between the two glasgow Warriors No 9s but Price has had a few chances to take Laidlaw’s starting jersey in the past and never truly made the most of his opportunity. It is time Horne was given his chance.
Two years ago, Laidlaw was dropped to make way for Price in the 2018 Six Nations opener against Wales. He gifted the Welsh a try in nine minutes and was taken off after just 46 minutes in the 34-7 defeat.
In last year’s Six Nations, Laidlaw was dropped again to make way for Price against Wales at BT Murrayfield. Scotland lost 18-12, with Laidlaw being brought on with just 15 minutes left.
With Laidlaw now out of the picture, gregor Townsend should turn to Horne and hand him a run of Six Nations games for Scotland, with Price on the bench as back-up.
So far, Horne has made just three starts out of his ten international matches but has scored an impressive six tries. Price has made 14 starts in 28 matches, scoring four tries.
So why Horne? During Scotland’s pre-World Cup training camp in Portugal, he topped all the speed and stamina tests. He has a better engine on him than any other Scotland player and has more dynamism than Price.
Just take a look at his second try against Benetton at the weekend. The 24-year-old started the move by picking the ball up at the back of the scrum then got himself into the middle of the park to be on the shoulder of Bruce Flockhart.
When he got the ball just inside the opposition half, he sprinted to the try-line on a diagonal run that left everybody in his wake.
There isn’t much between Horne and Price in terms of providing quick ball — something that Laidlaw was always accused of failing to do.
Horne is a better box kicker than Price and has speed of thought, too, which is vital for anybody who plays next to No 10 Finn russell as you don’t know what he is going to do next.
The one thing Horne needs is to become more vocal on the field. Price wears his heart on his sleeve and the fans love to see him gee up his fellow players.
Apart from that, Horne is a more complete player than Price. Although Warriors head coach Dave rennie doesn’t envy Townsend trying to pick the one to start against Ireland.
‘We didn’t have any preconceived ideas prior to this week as to who would start at nine against Benetton as there isn’t much between them,’ said rennie. ‘They’ve been sharing the scrum-half role this season and continue to do so. ‘I thought george Horne was excellent against Benetton, so he’s certainly putting pressure on us from a selection point of view, along with Ali, to start the game against exeter next weekend.’ In other words, rennie still isn’t sure who his No1 scrum-half is but has the luxury of having two very good ones at his disposal.
That is all well and good at club level when players need to be rested — but during the Six Nations, there has to be a first-choice scrum-half named for the Ireland game.
Filling the boots of Laidlaw is never going to be easy. You are talking about a man who played for his country 76 times — 39 as captain — and got them out of a hole with his consistent goal kicking on more than one occasion.
Neither Price nor Horne are goal-kickers. That leaves Townsend having to pick his scrum-half only on ability in open play. Based on that, Horne deserves the starting jersey in Dublin.