Gregor Townsend today announced the group of players who will take on the challenge of rugby’s greatest tournament, which will commence on February 4th provided the snow goes away. This will be Townsend’s sixth tilt at the title, and there is heavy speculation that it could be his last as Scotland head coach with rumours linking him to posts in France and England after the Rugby World Cup.
He goes in to the 2023 edition with a big list of injuries meaning a good few of his star names will either be absent or coming into the squad short on game time and/or form (Zander Fagerson, Stuart Hogg, Duhan Van der Merwe, Darcy Graham if he recovers).
Now is the time to find out if class is indeed permanent.
As usual there are some surprises in the squad but it is not unexpected that he would try to work around these issues.
Most of the eyebrow-raisers came in the backs, where the return of Sean Maitland was partly predictable given Graham’s injury and the lack of wing experience.
But did anyone see former England XVs and Sevens Cap (but the man with the most Scottish name ever) Ruaridh McConnochie being restored to the bosom of the homeland? McConnochie, who won two caps for England in 2019 and qualifies through his father, is now eligible to be selected due to World Rugby’s new rules that saw Jack Dempsey join up in the autumn.
The restoration of Stafford McDowall and Huw Jones sees Mark Bennett and Sam Johnson (himself only just back from injury) miss out in the centre, as does Rory Hutchinson.
Leicester Tigers second-row Cameron Henderson was selected for the ultimately cancelled 2021 summer squad for matches with England A, Romania and Georgia but will look to grab that first cap this time around.
If there is a worry it is the number of missing tightheads, with our first two choices of Zander and WP Nel included but surely with question marks over their current fitness one way or the other?
Otherwise Scotland should be able to field close to a first-choice XV at least.
Netflix camera teams were also in attendance at the press-conference as part of a new documentary series – think Living with Lions for the streaming generation, or “All or Nothing” but with some drama – whereby they presumably film all six camps then edit Scotland out at the last minute to focus on the whoever wins the tournament.
Who will that be? Interesting weeks lie ahead.
Scotland squad for the 2023 Guinness Six Nations
Forwards:
Ewan Ashman (Sale Sharks) 6 caps
Josh Bayliss (Bath Rugby) 3 caps
Simon Berghan (Glasgow Warriors) 31 caps
Jamie Bhatti (Glasgow Warriors) 25 caps
Fraser Brown (Glasgow Warriors) 57 caps
Dave Cherry (Edinburgh Rugby) 8 caps
Andy Christie (Saracens) 4 caps
Luke Crosbie (Edinburgh Rugby) 2 caps
Jack Dempsey (Glasgow Warriors) 4 caps
Matt Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors) 28 caps
Zander Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors) 54 caps
Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh Rugby) 59 caps
Jonny Gray (Exeter Chiefs) 72 caps
Richie Gray (Glasgow Warriors) 69 caps
Cameron Henderson (Leicester Tigers) uncapped
WP Nel (Edinburgh Rugby) 50 caps
Jamie Ritchie (Edinburgh Rugby) – CAPTAIN – 36 caps
Pierre Schoeman (Edinburgh Rugby) 16 caps
Javan Sebastian (Scarlets) 3 caps
Sam Skinner (Edinburgh Rugby) 23 caps
Rory Sutherland (Ulster Rugby) 22 caps
George Turner (Glasgow Warriors) 29 caps
Hamish Watson (Edinburgh Rugby) 54 caps
Backs:
Chris Harris (Gloucester Rugby) 39 caps
Ben Healy (Munster Rugby) uncapped
Stuart Hogg (Exeter Chiefs) 96 caps
George Horne (Glasgow Warriors) 18 caps
Huw Jones (Glasgow Warriors) 31 caps
Blair Kinghorn (Edinburgh Rugby) 38 caps
Sean Maitland (Saracens) 53 caps
Ruaridh McConnochie (Bath Rugby) uncapped
Stafford McDowall (Glasgow Warriors) uncapped
Ali Price (Glasgow Warriors) 58 caps
Cameron Redpath (Bath Rugby) 4 caps
Finn Russell (Racing 92) 65 caps
Ollie Smith (Glasgow Warriors) 2 caps
Kyle Steyn (Glasgow Warriors) 5 caps
Sione Tuipulotu (Glasgow Warriors) 11 caps
Duhan van der Merwe (Edinburgh Rugby) 23 caps
Ben White (London Irish) 9 caps