Gregor Townsend: Yellow weather warning to impact on Scots gameplan

Gregor Townsend expects wind and rain when Scotland play Ireland. Picture: Alan Harvey/SNS

A yellow weather warning has been issued for high winds, which the coach admits may mean tweaking the gameplan for the visit of a world  No 2-ranked Irish side looking to save their title defence following defeat by England in Dublin last Saturday. In short, it may not be an afternoon for one of those floated Finn  Russell wonder passes.

“One thing we’ve got our eye on as well is the weather,” said Townsend. “The team run [at the stadium today] looks to be nice with 40mph winds and rain and it’s going to be very windy on Saturday.

“It might be a different game than we played on Saturday against Italy when it was near perfect playing conditions.”

The coach conceded that the weather may render some of what the squad have been working on in the pristine environment of their state-of-the-art indoor Oriam base null and void come kick-off tomorrow afternoon.

“Yes, we’ll have to have that [switching gameplans] as an option. Certain plays or certain styles of play that we’ve planned might work against Ireland, if it is very windy and we have to play against the wind or with the wind we’d change things tactically.”

Townsend is fully expecting a gale-force response from  Ireland this week and doesn’t feel that a raft of injuries has made Joe Schmidt’s side any less formidable.

“I think the depth they have is amazing,” he said. “When it looked like [Garry] Ringrose was going to miss out you bring Rob Kearney back in and put [Robbie] Henshaw to 13. Now [Henshaw’s] out, Chris Farrell is a very good player, he’s strong and when he played for Ireland last year I thought he was outstanding until he picked up an injury.

“They’re going to be very direct in that midfield with him and Bundee Aki. They’ve still got the world’s best half-backs in [Conor] Murray and [Johnny] Sexton, pictured, available to them. Keith Earls who left the field last week is an outstanding player and they can just swap in anybody in that pack; Sean O’Brien, one of the best Irish forwards of recent times.

“We know the challenge we’re up against, our players play against Leinster, Munster, Ulster regularly, we play Ireland once a year and this year we get to play them twice [the sides are drawn together in the pool stage of the Rugby World Cup]. So we do know how good they are and how they’re going to attack us in this game.”

The toughness of the assignment has seen Townsend and his coaches go with experience over recent game time wherever a selection call has had to be made.

The quartet of Sean Maitland, Jonny Gray, Fraser Brown and Peter Horne bring a combined total of 160 caps to this week’s 23 and Townsend believes that will be vital in what is sure to be more relentless examination than the Scots received from Italy.

“Yes and it’s required,” said the coach. “The experience of players who are ready to go and have delivered before for us when they’ve come back from injury.

“Whether that’s Jonny or Fraser. Fraser last year missed a few games, came back off the bench against Ireland then started in Italy the following week and was very good. Sean and Peter are players who have proven in the past that they can play very well and they’re leaders. Important when you’re playing against one of the best teams in the world, a team that has been consistent, that hasn’t lost many games over the past two or three years, that those players who know what it’s about and have been in these games for you before are there on the field.

“They’ve only been injured two or three weeks some of them. Fraser’s the one who has missed most rugby, but he’s shown to us in training and showed last year when he came back [from injury] against Ireland, then against Italy, that he’ll be able to switch on straightaway. Training performances are important to see if players are going at 100 per cent. It’s been quite a physical training week for the forwards. We know we’re going to have to deal with the Irish maul and dealing with the contact area’s going to be huge. Ireland tend to dominate possession, so there’s going to be a lot more tackles than a normal game We’ve prepared well for that and Jonny and Fraser have come through that really well.”

That philosophy is crystalised in the decision to bring Saracens wing Maitland back for what will be his 38th cap ahead of hat-trick man-of-the-moment Blair Kinghorn and the head coach expanded on his thinking behind that call.

“It is credit to Blair’s performance that people are saying this was a tough decision,” said Townsend. “And rightly, the way Blair played. [Maitland] is an excellent player who has shown his quality week in and week out with Saracens and also with Scotland.

“Sean is one of our leaders. He presented to the group on an area of the game yesterday so he is an important part of our squad. He presented on part of the game that I would imagine will be a strong one on Saturday. Sean is involved in the group which we term the kick cycle. It could be opposition kicks, what we do with them, and our kick return. Or our kicks and what we do with the ball. As a coaching group we debate the pros and cons.

“The fact we did not announce the squad [to the players] until yesterday [Tuesday, rather than Monday] meant those discussions lasted longer. We also had to wait if Sean could train this week. Sean trained fully on Monday and Tuesday which gave us much more confidence this was the selection we were going with.”