Players snubbed by Scotland told: ‘play well for Edinburgh, massive job ahead’
Table-toppers provided only five for Townsend’s Nations Championship squad
The Edinburgh players left out of the Scotland squad for the autumn leg of the Nations Championship have been urged to keep working hard and concentrate on their club form.
There were only five representatives from the capital side in Gregor Townsend’s 37-man selection for next month’s Tests against New Zealand, Australia and Japan, compared to 19 from Glasgow Warriors.
That was despite Edinburgh’s strong start to the season which has seen them win four from four to top the United Rugby Championship.
Edinburgh forwards Magnus Bradbury and Freddy Douglas were surprise omissions and there was a strong case to be made for the inclusion of youngsters Ollie Blyth-Lafferty and Hector Patterson. There was also no place for veteran lock Grant Gilchrist or centre Matt Currie.
A massive job to be done in Treviso
The only Edinburgh players to make the cut for Scotland were Pierre Schoeman, Ewan Ashman, Liam McConnell, Darcy Graham and Duhan van der Merwe. Stevie Lawrie, the Edinburgh forwards coach, wants those who were overlooked to respond in the right way, starting with Saturday’s URC game against Benetton in Italy.
“First of all, well done to the five that got in, we're really chuffed with them,” said Lawrie. “And the other guys: play well for your club. They've got a massive job to do this weekend at Treviso.
“It's a good Scotland squad, isn't it? There's lots of depth there. What they can control is their performance on Saturday. Play well for Edinburgh. That's got to be their focus.”
Townsend said on Monday that it was harder for young players to break into the Scotland set-up when the squad is as settled as it is currently. The head coach's only curveball pick was a call-up for Ollie Leatherbarrow, the uncapped Newcastle Red Bulls back-rower.
Too soon for the young guns
His inclusion seemed to come at the expense of Bradbury. Douglas, meanwhile, finds himself behind Rory Darge and Jamie Ritchie in the openside pecking order. Townsend talked up the progress made by both Blyth-Lafferty and Patterson but felt it was too soon to bring them in for the Nations Championship.
“Every selection is tough,” added Lawrie. “It's a bloody good Scotland squad. You've got a lot of guys with historical form there as well. So, play well for Edinburgh – that's all you can control.”
He insisted there was no despondency around the club or among the players over their rather meagre representation in the national squad.
“They're magic,” said Lawrie. “I've never had a conversation about it, I'll be honest with you – with anybody. They've just had to get in and graft.
Glasgow showed great resilience
“We can't get excited enough about this game at the weekend. We know how tough it is out there. We've just seen that Glasgow won [against Benetton] in the last four minutes of the game, through great resilience, so we're going to have to be even better than we've been.”
With just five Edinburgh players called up, head coach Sean Everitt will be able to pick a stronger squad for Benetton than perhaps he might have anticipated. Van der Merwe is also likely to be released to play for his club in Italy. Nevertheless, Lawrie wants more of the club's players to win call-ups.
“I want them to play for Scotland. Of course I do. It's the pinnacle – it's international rugby – so of course I want them to play for Scotland. But I also want to play really well for Edinburgh."
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