Gregor Townsend goes full tilt at Georgia with one eye on South Africa as Scotland finalise World Cup prep

The chance to further build cohesion and fluency ahead of the World Cup outstripped any concerns over potential injuries as Gregor Townsend sat down to select his Scotland side to face Georgia in the final warm-up game before the tournament.

The coach has picked a team stuffed full of star names for the match at Murrayfield on Saturday, a potentially risky strategy given the physical reputation of opponents who claimed the scalps of Italy and Wales last year and now sit 11th in the world rankings.

Scotland open their World Cup campaign against South Africa two weeks on Sunday and Townsend is keen to use the Georgia match to work on the combinations within the team that will be used against the holders in Marseille. So rather than wrap the likes of Finn Russell and Ben White in cotton wool, the coach will unleash his first-choice half-backs. In fact, it is likely that as many as 10 of the team who face Georgia will line up against the Springboks on September 10.

White’s recovery from an ankle injury sustained against France at Murrayfield comes as a timely boost and he will link up again with Russell in the partnership that served Scotland well during this year’s Six Nations. Outside them, Sione Tuipulotu and Huw Jones continue at centre, while on the wings, Darcy Graham returns on the right in place of Kyle Steyn, who drops out despite his two tries in the narrow loss to the French in Saint-Etienne last time out. Duhan van der Merwe is on the left. There is a change at full-back as Ollie Smith replaces Blair Kinghorn who missed training last week with a thigh niggle but has now recovered. It would be no great surprise to see a similar backline face South Africa, with Kinghorn possibly getting the nod ahead of Smith.

Ben White has recovered from an ankle injury and will start for Scotland against Georgia at Scottish Gas Murrayfield. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

Townsend has chosen to tinker more with his pack for the Georgia game. A front row of Jamie Bhatti, Dave Cherry and WP Nel will start this weekend and the suspicion is they will be usurped by Pierre Schoeman, George Turner and Zander Fagerson in Marseille. Behind them, Grant Gilchrist will be partnered by Sam Skinner against Georgia, the latter replacing the rested Richie Gray. The back row of Jamie Ritchie, Rory Darge and Jack Dempsey gets another run-out after impressing in the 30-27 defeat by France.

“We want to give players another chance to build on the performances so far,” said Townsend who has seen his side beat Italy and France at home and lose narrowly away to the French in their three warm-up matches. “As a team, we have to take our game up to another level as we move towards the World Cup, so playing as many of those combinations that we believe will play against South Africa in two weeks’ time is really important. Not only do you get to play the game, you get to train in the build-up to the game – the starting team trains together – so another week of that to build cohesion is crucial for us so that we play close to our best rugby in that game against South Africa.”

Townsend said he was pretty close to knowing what his starting XV would be to face the Boks but noted that there were still discussions to be had around the make-up of the bench, and whether it would be a 6-2 or 5-3 split of forwards and backs. He believes Georgia are the right opponents to prepare his squad for the challenge of taking on the world champions and brushed aside any injury concerns.

“I do believe Georgia is a great game for us and a great test,” he said. “Their biggest strengths are the scrum, maul, and in contact. South Africa are one of the best teams in the world and their big strengths are also in the scrum, maul and contact. So, for the team and especially our forwards, this will be a great test for what’s coming.

Finn Russell has been picked as part of a strong Scotland side to play Georgia in their final World Cup warm-up match. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

“If it was only one week until the World Cup and we had a game this weekend then that would be a different discussion. But from our last game it will be four weeks until we play South Africa, so getting to play Georgia two weeks after France and two weeks before we play South Africa gives us the chance to give players a rest to recover from any niggles they might get this weekend and to build on cohesion. It’s really, really important that the team that we believe we will play against South Africa gets as many minutes on the field and plays together. The team has changed over the last few weeks but across the three games there are connections being built and there are more minutes into our players as we approach a World Cup.

“The other thing is that there is just as much chance of picking up injuries in training. On Tuesday at training there were three guys who stepped out. Now, they’re all OK but at one stage we were going, ‘that’s three guys that are injured’. We’ve seen it before at training: someone steps out, sees the doc and they’ve got a six-week injury and miss the World Cup.”

Townsend also revealed that attack coach Brad Mooar would be despatched to Twickenham on Friday to watch South Africa face the All Blacks, then make the trip to France the following day to see Ireland play Samoa in Bayonne. The Irish are Scotland’s final Pool B opponents at the World Cup, with games against Tonga and Romania to follow the South Africa opener.

Scotland team (v Georgia, Scottish Gas Murrayfield, Saturday, 5.30pm. TV: live on Prime Video)

15. Ollie Smith (Glasgow Warriors) 5 caps

14. Darcy Graham (Edinburgh) 35 caps

13. Huw Jones (Glasgow Warriors) 38 caps

12. Sione Tuipulotu (Glasgow Warriors) 18 caps

11. Duhan van der Merwe (Edinburgh) 30 caps

10. Finn Russell (Bath) – vice-captain – 71 caps

9. Ben White (Toulon) 15 caps

1. Jamie Bhatti (Glasgow Warriors) 31 caps

2. Dave Cherry (Edinburgh) 9 caps

3. WP Nel (Edinburgh) 55 caps

4. Sam Skinner (Edinburgh) 27 caps

5. Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh) - vice-captain - 64 caps

6. Jamie Ritchie (Edinburgh) - captain - 42 caps

7. Rory Darge (Glasgow Warriors) 10 caps

8. Jack Dempsey (Glasgow Warriors) 11 caps

Replacements

16. Ewan Ashman (Edinburgh) 8 caps

17. Rory Sutherland (unattached) 25 caps

18. Javan Sebastian (Edinburgh) 5 caps

19. Scott Cummings (Glasgow Warriors) 28 caps

20. Matt Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors) 35 caps

21. George Horne (Glasgow Warriors) 22 caps

22. Ben Healy (Edinburgh) 2 caps

23. Chris Harris (Gloucester) 43 caps