Why Freddy Douglas can inspire the young Scots in line to face Chile

The Scotland A team comes out of cold storage on Saturday evening to take on Chile at Hive Stadium in Edinburgh in what is expected to be the first of a run of regular fixtures for the shadow squad.

The revival of the A-team is at the heart of a new “performance pathway” for the male game, with the ultimate goal of returning the national side to the top five of the world rankings and keeping them there for the next decade. Scotland are currently sixth, behind South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand, France and Argentina.

The focus is on developing more home-grown players by exposing them to a higher standard of rugby. Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors are also playing A-team fixtures to help in this regard following the decision earlier this year to scrap the semi-pro Super Series.

Freddy Douglas made his Scotland debut against Portugal and will play for the A-team against Chile. | SNS Group

Scotland A’s last outing came in summer 2022 when they defeated Chile 45-5 in Santiago. Their last home game was the 16-16 draw with England Saxons at Scotstoun ten years ago.

Pete Horne, the Scotland assistant coach, is taking charge for Saturday’s game and has selected a starting XV with 12 full caps. Stafford McDowall, who will captain the Scots, was skipper of the senior Scotland side against Portugal last weekend. He admits it was tough to be told he wouldn’t be involved in the Test against Australia at Murrayfield on Sunday but soon refocused.

“We're all competitive sportsmen and we all want to be playing at the highest level so initially there probably was a bit of disappointment because the phone call started with 'oh you won't be involved against Australia',” he said. “But then I think the chance to lead a Scotland team against a Chile team that we know are tough because we played in the summer is a really good test. It's going to be a big occasion for some of the boys out there.”

While the Scotland A squad has an experienced core, there are players on the bench such as Edinburgh’s Liam McConnell and Jack Brown and Glasgow Warriors’ Jare Oguntibeju who have yet to play a competitive match for their clubs.

McDowall has urged them to seize their chance in the way Freddy Douglas did when he came off the bench for Scotland against Portugal last weekend. Douglas, 19, is also in the side to play Chile but has yet to play for Edinburgh.

“We know we're all good enough rugby players to go out and execute on the pitch,” added McDowall. “We saw Freddy Douglas, he hadn't played in any pro rugby either but he fitted right into a national team squad for the whole of the last three weeks and then he didn't look out of place at all when he came on on Saturday. Hopefully they'll take confidence from seeing that.”

Scotland A v Chile (Hive Stadium, Saturday 6pm)

Scotland A: A Reed; M Currie, M Tuipulotu, S McDowall (capt), R McCann; R Thompson, J Dobie; J Bhatti, G Hiddleston, D Rae, M Sykes, E Johnson, T Dodd, F Douglas, B Muncaster. Replacements: H Morris, M Jones, F Richardson, J Oguntibeju, L McConnell, B Afshar, B Healy, J Brown.

Chile: L Strabucchi; C Game, D Saavedra, S Videla, M Garafulic; J C Reyes, B Videla; J Carrasco, D Escobar, I Gurruchaga, S Pedrero, B Sáez, M Sigren (capt), C Saavedra, A Escobar. Replacements: A Böhme, N Aguayo, M Dittus, R Martínez, E Tchimino, M Torrealaba, R Fernández, N Garafulic.