Rory’s World Cup Squad v3.0: the Backs

Rory Baldwin

8 years ago

Back in July after the summer tour, Gav revised a prospective Scotland World Cup squad he’d drawn up based on his previous musings in that area. Now that the big man has moved on to pastures new as editor of SCRUM Magazine (the boy done good and we wish him well) this particular chalice falls to me to sip from going forward into 2019. Here is my current thinking, leaving out long-term injured and based on recent performances and selections. I’m also adjusting the balance to a 17/14 split as in 2015.

Scrum-half

Despite the endless debate he generates on these pages, Greig Laidlaw remains nailed on for a squad place after an autumn as captain, but there are still potentially two spots up for grabs.

Gregor Townsend picked 4 scrum-halves to train in the autumn with Henry Pyrgos having refound his form at Edinburgh. It’s no coincidence this is due to game-time, that perennially Scottish issue affecting player development. However based on who was selected to play the tests, it still looks like a pretty easy pick for the three to travel. There isn’t yet a certainty who should replace Laidlaw from the bench based on Horne’s limited international game time, or indeed if Laidlaw should even start. A strong winter for Hornito – Man of the Match in the recent win in Lyon was a good start – could give him a chance to state his case in the Six Nations, and it will be an interesting contest at Glasgow with Price. Will Rennie and Townsend agree on who the best out of those two is?

Selected: George Horne, Greig Laidlaw, Ali Price

Unlucky to miss out: Sam Hidalgo Clyne, Henry Pyrgos

Stand-off

Change has finally come to this section! After a few caps, Adam Hastings is now clearly the back up to Finn Russell with Pete Horne moving back into consideration as a centre. The Hastings + Russell experiment wasn’t a huge success and seems to deprive the Scottish attack of Russell’s mercurial skills on the ball, but it’s there in case of emergency. Hastings still has work to do and lessons to learn but has shown he’s not lacking confidence at this level. Russell had a quiet autumn by his standards of showmanship but is back tearing it up for Racing92 as Paris burns around him. Duncan Weir was also a late call-up to the training squad but it would seem only an injury to someone else gets him on the plane.

However, this is a World Cup squad and his appearance may come down to whether or not Laidlaw and Horne can cover 10 between them in favour of an extra winger. For me that is risky, so for now, he’s in. But a dip in form and he could be shuffled right back out again for…

Selected: Finn Russell, Adam Hastings

Unlucky to miss out: Duncan Weir

Centre

Despite arguments over the best starting pair, all three of Huw Jones, Pete Horne and Alex Dunbar are almost certain to travel. Which leaves Duncan Taylor (if he can get fit), Mark Bennett, James Lang, Chris Harris, Matt Scott and Nick Grigg fighting over one spot and it’s a lottery as to who would (or should) take it.

If he was fit, Taylor would be my first choice but I’m basing it on a squad if it was picked now, so it would look like Toony would probably take Chris Harris, who has the added versatility of playing on the wing (as could Jones). Mark Bennett could potentially do a job there but like Taylor will need to find form and fitness by then. Lang’s ability to cover standoff is less likely to be needed since the emergence of Adam Hastings, but it is the Toony Tombola after all… Nick Grigg is perhaps the next choice and back going well for the Warriors but (currently concussed) Matt Scott has done well since returning to Edinburgh and could yet make an appearance if his upswing in form continues.

Selected: Pete Horne, Alex Dunbar, Huw Jones, Chris Harris
Unlucky to miss out: Nick Grigg, Matt Scott, James Lang, Mark Bennett (inj) Duncan Taylor (inj).

Wing

Tommy Seymour, Sean Maitland and Blair Kinghorn remain the front runners; pick 2 from 3 in your XV and you’d be okay, although Kinghorn still needs a run of games at this level to justify a pick in the crunch games. It’s a shame as he is so good at fullback for Edinburgh, who also have plenty of wingers so he’s unlikely to get tried out of position as a favour to Toony.

One name we have added to the mix given his club form and a November squad call-up is Darcy Graham and he puts pressure on Lee Jones and Byron McGuigan for the remaining back three spot. Based on the pretty limited evidence of the autumn it would be McGuigan who goes over Jones, but the next time we look at this I’d hope Graham was truly in the mix.

Selected: Sean Maitland, Tommy Seymour, Blair Kinghorn, Byron McGuigan
Unlucky to miss out: Lee Jones, Darcy Graham, Dougie Fife

Full-back

In March and in July Stuart Hogg was a dead cert and this continues even after an Autumn where we thought his ankle injury would be a problem. He recovered from that in record time to play in all three home games and looked back to his lively best against South Africa. Long term-cover is still an issue (Kinghorn the most probably) but will likely come from one of the wingers, all of whom have played at the back.

Selected: Stuart Hogg
Unlucky to miss out: no-one, really.

Scotland Backs (14): George Horne, Ali Price, Greig Laidlaw; Finn Russell, Adam Hastings; Alex Dunbar, Pete Horne, Huw Jones, Chris Harris; Sean Maitland, Tommy Seymour, Blair Kinghorn, Byron McGuigan, Stuart Hogg.

Next week: the forwards.

If you can, keep discussions to the backs selection please on this post – Ed.