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Price and Jones leave tour with injuries

Ali Price
Ali Price - pic © Alastair Ross / Novantae Photography

Ali Price and Lee Jones have both left America this week to return to Glasgow.

Winger Jones picked up a knee injury in the 10-48 win over Canada in Edmonton while Ali Price suffered a groin strain that medical staff anticipate he won’t recover from in time to take part in the further tests against the USA and Argentina.

Edinburgh’s Dougie Fife was called up to replace Jones and could add to his 6 caps. Fife hasn’t featured for the senior side since 2015 but managed to resurrect his career via the Sevens squad before Richard Cockerill brought him back into the fold.

The uncapped Charlie Shiel (20) has been called up as cover at scrum-half. Shiel has signed his first pro-contract for next season with Edinburgh however having spent time with the 7s squad was probably held to be sharper in terms of match fitness than a less risky replacement such as Henry Pyrgos. As such it could well be as straight choice between Horne and Hidalgo-Clyne for the next two games – a pretty tasty prospect given both are in good form – with Horne now likely to start via the USA, but if Shiel trains well then you never know…

19 Responses

  1. Shame for Ali as I’d have liked to see him back to his best, possibly against Argentina. However he deserves a rest, even if enforced. Good luck to Charlie, although I cannot see him getting any game time it’ll be good experience with the squad.
    Not sure whether Fife will get a game either but I hope so.
    How about a back line vs Argentina of the following?
    SHC
    Horne
    Kinghorn
    Dunbar
    Grigg
    Taylor
    Hogg
    with Horne Jr, Jackson and Bennett on the bench.

    1. For me, starting Horne at 10 and having Jackson on the bench doesn’t add much to the development nature of the tour. You’ve got Kinghorn and Hogg in the team so cover for 15, perhaps it’d be better to give Hastings a bench spot over Jackson? Unless you’re thinking he starts against the US?

      1. That’s exactly what I was thinking James. Give Hastings his first start against the US, with Peter Horne on the bench for cover of 10/12/13 (and in case things go awry!).

  2. Interesting that Fowles/kennedy and prygos not selected… a sign of good things to come ?

    1. More likely is due to availability and fitness. Shiel has been with the 7s, so more likely to be ready to play. More surprising to me is the Fife wasn’t in the squad to begin with, as he’s going to be dangerously short of fitness if called upon. Assume that Kinghorn will now be pencilled in to start on the wing vs. USA and Argentina, with Hogg at FB. Might see Jackson replace Hogg for 2nd half in the former though.

  3. I’d go
    15.Hogg
    14.Kinghorn
    13.Bennett
    12.Lang
    11.McGuigan
    10.Horne
    9.SHC

    Replacements

    G.Horne
    Hastings
    Taylor

    1. I’d go for this :

      9.George Horne
      10.Adam Hastings
      11.Byron McGuigan
      12.James Lang
      13.Duncan Taylor
      14.Blair Kinghorn
      15.Stuart Hogg

  4. At the risk of labouring the point, we do seem to be struggling for decent wings at the moment. Fife is probably the sensible choice to replace Jones and has had some good games at Embra this season but he is somewhat short of match fitness and hasn’t played at international level for a while. Given this shortage, wondering whether come the RWC we might go with Hogg, Kinghorn, Seymour and Maitland and pick an extra centre, with at least one of the midfield covering wing too. Taylor fits the bill and think Bennett could do a decent shift there, so perhaps those 2 plus P Horne, Dunbar and H Jones. Of course, plenty of time for McGuigan to prove beyond all doubt that he should be going to Japan or for someone else to prove their case (not sure who though). Shame for Price that he’s picked up an injury, thought he looked more like the good Ali of old when he came on last weekend. However, almost certainly means that George Horne will now get his first cap which is a silver lining.

  5. Hopefully Edinburgh don’t sign a big-name non-Scottish scrum-half + fully back Shiel as their number one 9 next season. We’ve seen this season how well G.Horne has adapted in his 1st season of regular 15’s Pro rugby + i’m sure Shiel will make just as big of an impact at Edinburgh

  6. On an unrelated note, great Cronin-esque power from Richardson for his try for oor U20s tonight. Loved it.

  7. I would quite like to see a backline for USA of:
    9. Horne
    10. Hastings
    11. Mcguigan
    12. Horne
    13. Taylor
    14. Hogg
    15. Kinghorn
    21. SHC
    22. Bennett
    23. Fife

    Only reason for Kinghorn at 15 is to gain experience, Hoggy is good enough to do a shift on the wing against a Tier 2 side.

    Hastings and Horne at 10/12 should be able to unleash Mcguigan/Taylor/kinghorn and Hogg to good affect.

    They will need a half decent pack of course.

    1. Bhatti
    2. Mcinally
    3. Fagerson
    4. Carmichael
    5. Gilchrist
    6. Ritchie
    7. Hamilton
    8. Fagerson
    16. Turner
    17. Dell
    18. Mcallum
    19. Swinson
    20. Bradbury

    Will only have been Stewart and Grigg not selected for either game by that point.

  8. Sam Hidalgo-Clyne must be the biggest idiot on the planet for choosing to move to the Scarlets a year out from the world-cup just when he is getting back to his best and looking like a international player.

    With Webb moving to France and thus being ineligible for Welsh selection no way will the Welsh Rugby Union allow their best (by some distance) and only national dual contracted scrum-half Gareth Davies to play second fiddle a year out from the world-cup with only the mediocre Tomos Williams and Aled Davies as back-up. And with Wayne Piviac a serious contender to become the Welsh head-coach after the world cup there is no way he will be wanting to upset his potential new bosses.

    It would be like, with Brown’s injury problems, Turner’s lack of experience and Ford’s age, Hartley or George rocking up at Edinburgh and just expecting the SRU to allow their star hooker to play 2nd fiddle to them a year out from the world-cup. Sam will sadly only ever be used to allow Gareth Davies rest or when Gareth Davies is on international duty.

    The sad + bonkers thing about all this is that there would have been over a dozen clubs from the Pro14/Top14/England desperate to sign a scrum-half with his quality and ability where he would have been guaranteed to be their number one 9 and could have reached his potential. Yet he went to the one club where he is guaranteed never to be 1st choice or reach his true potential

    Ridiculous decision which stinks of “they were paying me the most”. In years to come he will look at this decision with regret of what could’ve been if he had made the right choice.

  9. SHC was the only 9 out of contract at Edinburgh and was basically pushed out by only being offered a contract extension until Xmas. Why Edinburgh/ someone wanted rid of him is still a mystery given his form and place kicking ability. With a very young family and being a World Cup year I’m not sure he would of chosen to move on next season. I assume there must be someone waiting to join Edinburgh in the new year or they really rate Charlie Shiel who would also be cheaper.
    He was linked with Bristol and Perpignan but it is getting more difficult for Scottish players to move away given the other Unions rules on non qualified players and salary caps in the top divisions. Seemingly his agent was banned for breaking betting rules about the same time as Edinburgh confirmed he would be leaving. So with a young family ,no contract and no agent it was amazing he managed to keep his form so well at the end of the season.
    There were very few openings for a 9 next season and he was looking at probably a Championship or D2 side until Scarlets realised they could pick him up pretty cheaply to strengthen their squad for next year.Probably not what he really wanted to do but when a side like Scarlets come along and offer a two year contract he probably had NO choice. May actually be good for him to get away from the Edinburgh/ SRU setup for a while as someone there obviously has a problem with him.

    1. He was only offered a short term contract after he’d rejected a contract offer for being too low. SHC might have a lot of potential and finally be back in form but he’d failed to nail down the Edinburgh starting position for two years so are you sure SHC wasn’t over valuing himself?

      1. I think scarlets might be good for him. They play great rugby and he knows to start he has to hold himself to higher standards than Fowles and Kennedy.

  10. Blake, i think Sam will be able to display his attacking game alot better in a strong scarlets teams, he will get alot of game time as Davies will be rested and managed properly leading up to a world cup so expect to see him starting all the easier/average games. he will also get european play-off experience to display his skill set, who knows he could be coming off the bench in the semi-final and Finals or it.

    Its probaly the best move he could make considering the circumstances he was under.

    If he went to English to an english club he would get screwed over in the international windows with there stupid rules and a french club would burn him out.

    If he can play well enough there is no reason he wont be starting, Barclay was a first choice with very strong international competition in that scarlets back-row.

    Also as long as he keeps getting opportunities in a scotland shirt and taking them well then his club performances/appearances wont factor in a huge amount.

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