Gregor Townsend insists he’s not taking a gamble after naming an almost entirely changed line-up for Scotland’s Nations Championship match against Fiji at Murrayfield.
Only Gregor Brown survives from the starting XV that ran the Springboks close last weekend and even then the Glasgow Warriors forward features in a different position after being switched from lock to No 8.
Several senior figures including Finn Russell, Ben White, Jack Dempsey and Matt Fagerson have been given the weekend off, while others like Zander Fagerson, Pierre Schoeman, Scott Cummings and captain Sione Tuipulotu are named only on the bench.
That means first starts in the pack for Gregor Hiddleston and Freddy Douglas, while another hooker, Seb Stephen, should make his Scotland debut as a replacement as part of a line-up captained by Stafford McDowall.
Six of the matchday squad have fewer than 10 caps but Townsend is adamant this is no fringe selection to take on a Fijian side thrashed 73-8 by England last weekend. Instead, the head coach revealed he always planned to utilise the entirety of his squad across the three matches.
‘We’ve always said that this will be a tour where everybody gets an opportunity,’ said Townsend. ‘There’s one player that misses out, Nathan Macbeth, who’s had a leg infection in the last few days. But everyone else that’s came on tour is going to get a chance to play. And a lot of them are getting a chance to start this weekend.
Townsend claims the plan all along was for all his players to see Nations Championship action
‘We’ve got to have an eye on the future so the depth that we’ve created — and are still creating — only comes if you give people opportunities. I think those descriptions (of it being a second string) are gone. You don’t see it as first team, second team. It’s an opportunity for 14 of the guys that didn’t play last week, an opportunity to play at home and also to finish this season individually and as a team.’
Asked if it was a gamble to make so many changes, Townsend replied: ‘No. I think because they’ve trained a lot together, we felt that was important. Last week a lot of those combinations were training against the team playing against South Africa.
‘So, I felt that cohesion would help with so many changes being made. And we’ve had experience of (doing something similar) recently. We’re really looking forward to this team going out at the weekend. There are some quality players there who’ve been training well and who are fresh.’
Among the more experienced figures restored to the starting line-up are Darcy Graham and Duhan van der Merwe. Scotland’s leading try scorers, on 38 and 35 tries respectively, were for so long guaranteed starters but the form in recent years of Glasgow pair Kyle Steyn and Jamie Dobie has seen the Edinburgh duo reduced to cameos or jettisoned from matchday squads entirely. They start on Saturday, then, with a point to prove.
‘They’ve got the chance to show the quality that they have,’ added Townsend. ‘They’ve trained really well throughout this period. Both of them can consider themselves unlucky not to have played in the first two games (against Argentina and South Africa).
‘They realise there’s competition and that this is a big opportunity. They’re really motivated. They’ve obviously got a freshness as they’ve not played for a few weeks and they understand our game is all about effort off the ball.’
This is Scotland’s first game at Murrayfield since the sad passing of Scott Hastings in May at the age of 61. The No 13 on the back of Ollie Smith’s jersey will stand out in gold as tribute to the Grand Slam-winning great.
The highly-rated Gregor Hiddleston will make his first start in the pack for Scotland
‘The iconic images I have of Scott when I was a supporter were of him playing in that 13 jersey against England in the Grand Slam game in 1990,’ recalled Townsend. ‘I got to play alongside him but the message we want to send out there is, “Scott, you wore the 13 for so many years, so we’re going to have that number in gold”. And it’ll stand out.’
Another player highly tipped for the future is Jake Dalziel, who will start at fly-half as the Scotland Under-20s look to seal a fifth-placed finish at the junior world championships by beating Wales in Georgia on Friday.
The 17-year-old — the son of Scotland forwards coach, John — will then join up with the Newcastle Red Bull academy, a move Townsend insists he had no involvement with despite holding a part-time role as a rugby consultant for Red Bull.
‘No, I wasn’t (involved),’ he insisted. ‘John had told me that there were two or three clubs interested. Bath flew up to meet him, obviously Scottish Rugby were keen to keep him in Scotland and Newcastle spoke to him. We can’t give a contract to everybody in Scotland from that Under-20s group.’
