Rugby World Cup shapes Gregor Townsend’s Nations Championship squad as young guns overlooked
Blair Kinghorn and Huw Jones return but there are notable absentees
A year from now, Gregor Townsend hopes Scotland will still be involved in the knockout stages of the Rugby World Cup in Australia.
It is a part of the competition in which the national side have been conspicuous by their absence in each of the last two tournaments.
You have to go back to 2015, when Vern Cotter was at the helm, for the last time Scotland made it past the pool phase.
Changes to the format mean failing to qualify from their group in 2027 is almost unthinkable but the acid test is whether the Scots can progress beyond the round of 16, a new stage added as the World Cup expands from 20 to 24 teams.
Scotland are second in the standings
With that in mind, the planning starts now and it goes some way to explaining Townsend’s squad for the autumn leg of the Nations Championship which was announced on Monday.
The head coach has resisted the temptation to call up many young bucks, preferring instead to stick with the experienced core of players who have served him well of late, most notably in the victories over England, France and Wales in this year’s Six Nations and the impressive away win over Argentina in the summer leg of the Nations Championship.
Scotland will host New Zealand, Australia and Japan at Murrayfield next month in the second phase of the new competition, then travel south for ‘Finals Weekend’ at Twickenham where they will play the southern hemisphere side ranked in their equivalent position.
Townsend’s side currently sit second in the northern standings - behind France - after wins over Argentina and Fiji and a defeat by South Africa. The Springboks lead the southern standings, ahead of the All Blacks and the Wallabies.
There is no place in Townsend’s 37-man Nations Championship squad for Edinburgh youngsters Hector Patterson or Ollie Blyth-Lafferty, nor is Newcastle Red Bulls prodigy Jake Dalziel included. Their time will come.
Return of Huw Jones and Blair Kinghorn
The coach has stuck with the tried and tested and there are returns for Huw Jones and Blair Kinghorn - both absent in the summer, through injury and for rest reasons, respectively. The only real surprise was a call-up for Ollie Leatherbarrow, the uncapped Newcastle Red Bulls back-row forward, who has been preferred to Edinburgh No 8 Magnus Bradbury.
Otherwise, it is a squad packed with experience and, for Townsend, a continuation of where he left off in the summer.
“That was the first tour I think I've been on with Scotland where you weren't bringing players to develop,” said the national coach. “It was playing Argentina away, playing South Africa away. You were picking your strongest squad.
“We want our strongest squad now competing for positions going into the New Zealand game, the Australia game, and also putting their hands up for the World Cup.
“We've done a lot of increasing the depth and having those tours where we see different players. We tend [in the past] to have had a fourth game in the November series where it's not been a top-ten team. That's all changed now. It's quality sides.
“We now have to build on the cohesion that the guys are showing so we can go to the World Cup with a settled squad.
“That doesn't exclude players, because you see Ollie [Leatherbarrow] coming into the squad, but it's probably going to be harder for inexperienced players coming in if these guys are fit and playing well.”
While the likes of Blyth-Lafferty, Patterson and Dalziel are on the start of their journey in professional rugby, they are players of enormous potential and if they continue to develop at their current rate, Townsend may have to reconsider. For now, though, it’s about the senior players.
Freddy Douglas, the young Edinburgh openside, is another who finds himself on the outside despite a bright start to the season. The flanker made his Scotland debut two years ago as a teenager against Portugal before he had even played for his club. He is still only 21 but with Rory Darge and Jamie Ritchie both available, Townsend couldn’t squeeze him into his squad.
‘There'll be a freshness about him’
Jack Dempsey, another Scotland mainstay, has joined up with the squad in Edinburgh and Townsend reported that the No 8 was fit and fresh following his move from Glasgow Warriors to Toshiba Brave Lupus in Tokyo. He has played one game for his new club and will be available for the Nations Championship but not next year’s Six Nations which clashes with the Japanese season.
“We know there'll be a freshness about him, but also it's about getting back up to Test level. We're going to have to try to provide that in training because there are no games between now and New Zealand.”
Another lightly raced member of the squad is Duhan van der Merwe who made his comeback from an ankle problem for Edinburgh against the Lions on Friday night but lasted only 18 minutes after injuring his hand - but not as seriously as first feared.
“It was a much better outcome than it looked at the time,” said Townsend. “I think they diagnosed it as a compound dislocation, which means the bone was sticking out when he went to hospital, but it turned out it wasn't as serious as that.
“We expect him to train tomorrow [Tuesday]. I won't give any secrets away, but he'll probably be playing this weekend [for Edinburgh against Benetton].”
Strong back-three options
With Darcy Graham also fit again, Kyle Rowe in fine form and the return of Kinghorn, Scotland have excellent back-three options. But Townsend is also aware that Josh McKay becomes Scottish-qualified ahead of the Japan game on November 21.
“He's very, very keen,” said Townsend. “Obviously, he's not in the current squad, but he's aware that we enjoy what he does on the field, how hard he works with his teammates and what he brings at 15.
“We'll see how things progress over the next few weeks. It is a very competitive area of the team. With everybody fit in the back three, he's going to have to work really hard to get in this squad, like everybody else.”
While the Nations Championship is important and Scotland are very well placed after the three summer matches, the end game comes next autumn when Townsend will take charge of Scotland at a World Cup for the third and final time.
He will have to trim his squad to 33 for the tournament in Australia, making it even more difficult for those on the outside to force their way in. Scotland will face Uruguay, Ireland and Portugal in Pool D in Australia.
“Twelve months from now, the pool stages will have finished,” said Townsend. “I think the last 16 will be getting played, so that's our goal, to be playing knockout rugby in 12 months' time, and between now and then, play our best rugby. That will put us in a really good position to have a good World Cup, but also put us in a position to do something special before then.”
Scotland squad named for Nations Championship
Here is the 37-man squad for the four matches which are against New Zealand (Nov 7), Australia (Nov 15) and Japan (Nov 21) at Murrayfield plus one more Test as part of ‘Finals Weekend’ at Twickenham:
Forwards (21): Ewan Ashman – Edinburgh Rugby, Josh Bayliss – Bath Rugby, Gregor Brown – Glasgow Warriors, Scott Cummings – Glasgow Warriors, Alex Craig – Glasgow Warriors, Rory Darge – Glasgow Warriors, Jack Dempsey – Toshiba Brave Lupus, Matt Fagerson – Glasgow Warriors, Zander Fagerson – Glasgow Warriors, Jonny Gray – Perpignan, Gregor Hiddleston – Glasgow Warriors, Will Hurd – Leicester Tigers, Ollie Leatherbarrow – Newcastle Red Bulls, Nathan McBeth – Glasgow Warriors, Liam McConnell – Edinburgh Rugby, Elliot Millar Mills – Newcastle Red Bulls, Jamie Ritchie – Glasgow Warriors, Pierre Schoeman, Rory Sutherland, Seb Stephen, Max Williamson.
Backs (16): Fergus Burke – Saracens, Jamie Dobie – Glasgow Warriors, Darcy Graham – Edinburgh Rugby, George Horne – Glasgow Warriors, Rory Hutchinson – Northampton Saints, Huw Jones – Toulon, Tom Jordan – Bristol Bears, Blair Kinghorn – Toulouse, Stafford McDowall – Glasgow Warriors, Kyle Rowe – Glasgow Warriors, Finn Russell – Bath Rugby, Ollie Smith – Glasgow Warriors, Kyle Steyn – Glasgow Warriors, Sione Tuipulotu – Captain – Glasgow Warriors, Duhan van der Merwe – Edinburgh Rugby, Ben White – Toulon.
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