Stuart Hogg says this is the best Scotland squad he’s been involved with but is wary of Australia and their ‘angry' man

Stuart Hogg believes this is the strongest Scotland squad he’s been involved with in his decade’s service with the national side and is relishing the opportunity to take on an Australia team he considers among the best in the world.
Stuart Hogg believes the current Scotland squad is the best he's been involved with.  (Photo by Ross Parker / SNS Group)Stuart Hogg believes the current Scotland squad is the best he's been involved with.  (Photo by Ross Parker / SNS Group)
Stuart Hogg believes the current Scotland squad is the best he's been involved with. (Photo by Ross Parker / SNS Group)

Sunday’s match at Murrayfield is the standout game on a busy weekend of international rugby and the 60,000-plus who will pack into the ground can expect to see two sides committed to attack.

Historically, of the three southern hemisphere giants, it is against Australia that Scotland fare best, enjoying a win rate of 34 per cent compared to 19 per cent against South Africa and, infamously, zero per cent against New Zealand.

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Recent form is even more encouraging. The Scots have won four of their last seven Tests against the Wallabies with the three defeats all coming by fewer than seven points. The sides last met at Murrayfield in 2017 when Gregor Townsend’s side scored eight tries in a 53-24 victory. It was Scotland’s biggest win against Australia and the first time they had managed to score more than three tries in a game against them but Hogg managed to miss the match after injuring himself in the warm-up.

The Scotland captain is a keen student of rugby history but knows past glories will count for little on Sunday.

“All the stats reeled off, unfortunately they’re all in the past,” he said. “It’s great that it’s worked out for us but that counts for nothing going into the game.

“I think for us, we challenge ourselves to be the best version of ourselves for 80 minutes or however long you’re on the field and hopefully every one of us has an impact on the game.

“It is absolutely tremendous to talk about the history of what we’ve done but hopefully on Sunday we can add to that history individually and as a team, and what that means to me is a Scotland win.”

Stuart Hogg trains with the Scotland squad at BT Murrayfield on the eve of the Australia match.  (Photo by Ross Parker / SNS Group)Stuart Hogg trains with the Scotland squad at BT Murrayfield on the eve of the Australia match.  (Photo by Ross Parker / SNS Group)
Stuart Hogg trains with the Scotland squad at BT Murrayfield on the eve of the Australia match. (Photo by Ross Parker / SNS Group)

Townsend has picked a side which contains 14 of the players who started against France in Paris in March, with only the injured Rory Sutherland missing out. An exceptional performance that evening saw Scotland win in the Stade de France for the first time in 22 years. Hogg believes they will need to match those standards against Australia.

“We have high expectations and standards, individually and collectively, and I think when you put on the pitch the kind of perfect game plan that you can execute, France would be right up there,” said the full-back. “Defensively I thought we were very, very strong. Attack-wise we played in the right areas, we took our opportunities, we kept the scoreboard ticking over, played right to the end.

“But that shows what we’re about: constantly working hard, showing what it means to play for our country. As I say, that’s the kind of standard we’ve set, and we have to match that and better it to be in with a chance of beating the Wallabies.”

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James O'Connor will line up at stand-off for Australia against Scotland. (Photo by Jono Searle/Getty Images)James O'Connor will line up at stand-off for Australia against Scotland. (Photo by Jono Searle/Getty Images)
James O'Connor will line up at stand-off for Australia against Scotland. (Photo by Jono Searle/Getty Images)
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Hogg and the other exiled Scots played no part in last weekend’s 60-14 win over Tonga in the Autumn Nations Series opener but the captain believes the result and performance illustrated Scotland’s strength in depth. Kyle Steyn and Rufus McLean, both making their first starts for their country, scored four and two tries respectively but neither is in the XV to play Australia.

“This is the best squad that I’ve ever been involved in,” said Hogg. “I think there’s been a lot made about the new boys, about Rufus’ incredible performance last week against Tonga, about Kyle scoring four tries. The fact that Kyle’s on the bench and Rufus isn’t involved just shows the strength in depth we’ve got.

“I feel for these boys because they did play incredibly well last week, but it challenges us boys coming in this week to really make a difference, to make an impact. It just shows the strength in depth we’ve got in this squad.

“Up front, in the midfield, in the back three, in fact everywhere, the competition for places is massive. It encourages us to work on our individual game even more.

Australia scrum-half Nic White is a former team-mate of Stuart Hogg's at Exeter. (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)Australia scrum-half Nic White is a former team-mate of Stuart Hogg's at Exeter. (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)
Australia scrum-half Nic White is a former team-mate of Stuart Hogg's at Exeter. (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

“The thing I love most about the squad is our togetherness off the field. You can see that in the way we perform on the field. It brings us closer, so we work harder on a daily basis. We work as hard as we possibly can when we’re in and around the hotel.

“The environment being created here over the last few years has been brilliant, with boys enjoying themselves and everyone being involved in the Scottish rugby camp really enjoying themselves.”

With Quade Cooper out of the picture, Hogg expects James O’Connor to be a more than adequate replacement at 10 for Australia and thinks he will be ably assisted by scrum-half Nic White, a former team-mate of the Scotland captain’s at Exeter.

“I’ve watched a fair bit of rugby down the years and I love the fact that James O’Connor and Quade Cooper have come back into the Aussie team,” said Hogg. “Unfortunately Quade has not travelled but to see these guys back involved has changed everything about Australian rugby.

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“The same could be said about Nic White. I was fortunate enough to play with Whitey at Exeter for four or five months before Covid and he’s an angry little bugger but he’s absolutely brilliant. I love playing with him. He made me better because he used to bark at me all the time, and you can see how much he's enjoying his rugby and how well he's playing at the minute. So with him and James O'Connor playing, that’s two guys we really have to keep an eye on.

“But the Aussies as a collective are a really good side and they’re on a winning streak so they’ll be high on confidence. But we feel we're ready to take them on.”

Scotland v Australia, Autumn Nations Series, Sunday, BT Murrayfield, 2.15pm

Scotland: Stuart Hogg (c); Darcy Graham, Chris Harris, Sam Johnson, Duhan van der Merwe; Finn Russell, Ali Price; Pierre Schoeman, George Turner, Zander Fagerson, Sam Skinner, Grant Gilchrist, Jamie Ritchie, Hamish Watson, Matt Fagerson.

Subs: Ewan Ashman, Jamie Bhatti, Oli Kebble, Jamie Hodgson, Josh Bayliss, George Horne, Adam Hastings, Kyle Steyn.

Australia: Andrew Kellaway; Tom Wright, Len Ikitau, Hunter Paisami, Jordan Petaia; James O’Connor, Nic White; James Slipper, Folau Fainga’a, Allan Alaalatoa, Rory Arnold, Izack Rodda, Rob Leota, Michael Hooper (c), Rob Valetini.

Subs: Connal McInerney, Angus Bell, Taniela Tupou, Will Skelton, Pete Samu, Tate McDermott, Kurtley Beale, Izaia Perese.

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