Scotland to ‘throw everything’ at South Africa in World Cup opener - will pick strongest team against Georgia to prepare

Gregor Townsend has vowed to “throw everything” at South Africa in the opening Pool B game of the Rugby World Cup as Scotland look to qualify from arguably the toughest group in the tournament’s history.

The coach on Wednesday named a 33-man squad which will travel to France to compete in a section where three of the top-five ranked countries in the world have been drawn together. Townsend will go full throttle against the Springboks in Marseille on September 10 and will field his strongest available team in the final warm-up game against Georgia a week on Saturday to prepare. “We’ll go as strong as we believe we can,” said Townsend. “If we don’t put a group out that might be similar to the group that plays South Africa, it’s going to be a month where they’ve not played a game. I don’t think that is the best preparation for a Test match.”

After South Africa, Scotland will have a fortnight’s break before facing Tonga. They then take on Romania before completing their pool schedule against Ireland, the world'd No 1 ranked team, in Paris on October 7.

“It’s the toughest group, I’d imagine,” said Townsend. “We’ll have to throw everything at the South Africa game regardless of the two-week break afterwards. All we’ve been focused on is being at our best for the start of the tournament – or as close to our best as we can get. I know that’s idealistic. Your first game at a World Cup you’re not going to deliver your very best game but we’re working hard to do that. We believe when we get our game right we can be a match for anyone, any of the top three or four teams in the world. A couple of times we’ve managed to get wins – England were top four or five when we played them away from home earlier this year. On another two occasions, France in Paris and New Zealand in November, we were in winning positions in those games. There’s still improvement and progress to go to turn those winning positions into actual wins but we believe in this group and the rugby that we play that we can do that from September 10 onwards. I don’t believe there is a set ceiling on what they can achieve.”

SOUTH QUEENSFERRY, SCOTLAND - AUGUST 16: Scotland Head Coach Gregor Townsend during the Scotland World Cup Squad Announcement at Queensferry Scotts, on August 16, 2023, in South Queensferry, Scotland. (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group)

As expected, Townsend’s squad was short of surprises as he cut four players from his 37-strong training group. Stuart McInally was the highest profile omission. The Edinburgh stalwart had hoped to bow out at the World Cup before pursuing a new career as an airline pilot but Townsend has selected George Turner, Ewan Ashman and Dave Cherry as his three hookers. It’s tough on McInally, 33, who has been a magnificent servant for club and country and was captain at the 2019 World Cup in Japan. He now looks to have played his last game for Scotland, as a replacement in the narrow defeat by France in Saint-Etienne at the weekend. It was his 49th cap and he will not add to it unless another hooker gets injured. Townsend said McInally would not feature against Georgia.

The other players to be cut from the training squad are scrum-half Jamie Dobie, prop Murphy Walker and flanker Josh Bayliss.

Dobie, the Glasgow Warriors scrum-half, loses out to Ben White, Ali Price and George Horne, while Walker is pipped by Javan Sebastian who will go to France as the third-choice tighthead behind Zander Fagerson and WP Nel. Bayliss, a late addition to Townsend’s training squad, also drops out, with the Scotland coach taking Jamie Ritchie, Rory Darge, Jack Dempsey, Matt Fagerson, Hamish Watson and Luke Crosbie as his six back-rowers. Ritchie will captain the squad which is made up of 19 forwards and 14 backs and comprises 14 players from Edinburgh, 14 from Glasgow, two from Bath, one from Gloucester, one from Toulon and one - Rory Sutherland - who is unattached.

Scotland’s 2023 Rugby World Cup squad

Forwards

Ewan Ashman (Edinburgh) 8 caps

Jamie Bhatti (Glasgow Warriors) 31 caps

Dave Cherry (Edinburgh) 9 caps

Luke Crosbie (Edinburgh) 5 caps

Scott Cummings (Glasgow Warriors) 28 caps*

Rory Darge (Glasgow Warriors) 10 caps

Jack Dempsey (Glasgow Warriors) 11 caps

Matt Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors) 35 caps

Zander Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors) 59 caps*

Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh) 64 caps**

Richie Gray (Glasgow Warriors) 75 caps**

WP Nel (Edinburgh) 55 caps**

Jamie Ritchie (Edinburgh) – captain – 42 caps*

Pierre Schoeman (Edinburgh) 23 caps

Javan Sebastian (Edinburgh) 5 caps

Sam Skinner (Edinburgh) 27 caps

Rory Sutherland (unattached) 25 caps

George Turner (Glasgow Warriors) 37 caps*

Hamish Watson (Edinburgh) 58 caps*

Backs

Darcy Graham (Edinburgh) 35 caps*

Chris Harris (Gloucester) 43 caps*

Ben Healy (Edinburgh) 2 caps

George Horne (Glasgow Warriors) 22 caps*

Huw Jones (Glasgow Warriors) 38 caps

Blair Kinghorn (Edinburgh) 46 caps*

Ali Price (Glasgow Warriors) 63 caps*

Cameron Redpath (Bath) 7 caps

Finn Russell (Bath) 71 caps**

Ollie Smith (Glasgow Warriors) 5 caps

Kyle Steyn (Glasgow Warriors) 12 caps

Sione Tuipulotu (Glasgow Warriors) 18 caps

Duhan van der Merwe (Edinburgh) 30 caps

Ben White (RC Toulon) 15 caps

* denotes past Rugby World Cup selection