Scotland step up training sessions with 'throwing guru' as World Cup warm-up matches loom

Ewan Ashman is keeping an eye on South Africa’s progress through the Rugby Championship and expects to learn some valuable lessons about how to tackle the Springboks on the opening weekend of this Autumn’s World Cup in Marseilles on September 10.

But the 23-year-old hooker insists there is no chance of him or his Scotland team-mates being too much into the current world champions’ performances, regardless of whether it is a big win such as that achieved over Australia last weekend or a defeat such as they suffered [35-20] against New Zealand yesterday.

“I’ll be watching the games, but I won’t be overthinking it,” said Ashman, who has been capped seven times since scoring a spectacular swallow-dive try on his debut off the bench against Australia in November 2021. “They are a big physical team, as we all know, and I hope I get a chance to test myself against some of the best maulers and most confrontational players in the world. So, we’ll all watch their games and try to pick up what we can, but we realise it is a long way away and a lot of rugby to be played before then, so the main focus is just getting better every day.”

Ashman was speaking after Friday’s ‘open’ training session at the Hive Stadium on the back pitches at Murrayfield. It might have been a PR event to mark the launch of Scotland’s strip for the 2023-24 season, but head coach Gregor Townsend wasn’t going to let that be an excuse for the players to take it easy.

Ewan Ashman during a Scotland Rugby training session at the Hive Stadium on Friday. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

With Scotland’s first (of four) World Cup warm-up matches now only a fortnight away, every day is crucial, both in terms of preparing the squad as a collective, and in terms allowing individual players to stake their claim for selection into the final group of 33 which will compete in France.

“The contact at the start of today’s session was the first time the coaches have said: ‘Right, tin-hats on, let’s go to work’,” revealed Ashman. “And it definitely feels like the games are around the corner now. A bit of bone-on-bone gets you a bit excited for it and makes it more real.”

There are four hookers currently in the frame for the World Cup, and that will be cut to three before the team fly out to France, so it is a shoot-out between Ashman, Dave Cherry and veteran Stuart McInally to make the plane alongside Scotland’s first choice George Turner.

Ashman ended the Six Nations as Turner’s understudy, and one area of his game that the 23-year-old is really focused on improving as he looks to nail down his place in Scotland’s World Cup squad is line-out throwing.

“We did a lot with John Dalziel [Scotland’s forwards coach] during the first training block and then with this block we’ve had Simon Hardie come in, who is a top throwing coach,” he revealed. “The boys work with him at Edinburgh. It is a few years since I’ve done anything with him but he’s a real throwing guru. So, even after just a few days I can feel the difference, the throws are coming out nice and I’m really enjoying myself.

“I throw every day, so it’s definitely about repetition, but it is also about feeling the throws. It’s not thoughtless, you’re not just chucking it at a pole 15 times and not thinking about it. You are feeling it off your fingers, making sure you are constantly improving, watching footage and making sure you are not getting into bad habits – so there is probably more to it than people expect."