George Turner reaches 50 caps this Saturday as Scotland round off their Quilter Autumn Series against Tonga at Murrayfield. It is a well earned milestone for a player who was a dependable member of the pack before his sojourn in Japan, and who may have thought his test caps were over. He anchors a team that was always going to be heavily reshaped for this fixture, even after the dismal loss to Argentina that has now seen Scotland drop to 9th in the World Rankings.
Skipper Sione Tuipulotu is the only starter retained from last week. He pairs with Ollie Smith in midfield, while Kyle Rowe and Duhan van der Merwe fill the wings. Tom Jordan starts at full-back for the first time in this series.
At standoff, Fergus Burke gets his first home cap at and links up with Ben White, who returns after illness saved him the embarrassment of being associated with last weekend.
In the front row,a similarly guilt (and hopefully pain) free Zander Fagerson is back following the injury that stopped his Lions tour, joining Turner and Rory Sutherland.
Max Williamson and Alex Samuel form a new second row partnership, having come off the bench together in the opener against the USA. In the back row, Jamie Ritchie and Andy Onyeama-Christie make their first appearances of the autumn, with Magnus Bradbury at Number 8 forming a new unit.
The bench includes Ewan Ashman, who set a try scoring mark for a Scotland forward last weekend, along with props Nathan McBeth and late squad call-up Will Hurd. Marshall Sykes and Josh Bayliss cover the remaining forward spots. George Horne, Stafford McDowall and Kyle Steyn provide the backline options.
All of this takes place with a far larger issue looming over it. Gregor Townsend is now under more pressure than at any point in his eight years in charge, and the debate about his future is casting a long shadow over the final week of the autumn, especially with the announcement of his part time consultancy at Newcastle Red Bull giving rise to questions over his focus or commitment to the national side, which has stagnated even with his full attention.
The selection is interesting in places, but almost regardless of result, the match itself will not explain why the first choice XV wilted so badly to lose a 21-0 lead against Los Pumas, nor indeed will it give many of them a chance to respond against a similar level of opposition. The only thing that might give some insight would be if there is a similar level of incoherence and bench misuse in the second half, a period where Scotland struggle badly against higher ranked sides. Given Tonga are ranked lower, expect a better performance from which we learn little.
With so many changes and an experimental feel to the side in many areas – although a lot of these guys should have been given a go long before now – whatever unfolds later today risks being overtaken by the wider discussion about where Scotland go next – and who will be leading them.
Scotland: Tom Jordan, Kyle Rowe, Ollie Smith, Sione Tuipulotu (capt), Duhan van der Merwe, Fergus Burke, Ben White; Rory Sutherland, George Turner, Zander Fagerson, Alex Samuel, Max Williamson, Andy Onyeama-Christie, Jamie Ritchie, Magnus Bradbury.
Replacements: Ewan Ashman, Nathan McBeth, Will Hurd, Marshall Sykes, Josh Bayliss, George Horne, Stafford McDowall, Kyle Steyn.
22 responses
No Liam McConnell in the 23 ? I wanted to see more of him .
As you say Rory, a lot of these guys should have been given a go long before now, only using Onyeama-Christie against Tonga is baffling. I’m excited to see the young second row pairing of Williamson & Samuel, Sykes was preferred for the bench against NZ & no lock replacement last week, where is the consistency? I just hope Turner can find them at the lineoout. Other players like Dylan Richardson who has been in great form for Edinburgh are just ignored completely.
Very poor 1st half. Lack of quality from Scotland
Dreadful first half, the score belies the quality. Far too many errors and seemingly confused about the game plan. Opportunities created but missed – same old story.
Hope the second half will lift the score to 50+ but on the evidence of first 15 minutes I doubt it.
Game changed when ST was replaced. He was stifling the backline.
It’s hard to get excited about comfortably beating a tier 2 side. We badly need some top 6 scalps if we really want to improve.
An afternoon of passionless dullness against peurile opposition. Not scoring for 36 minutes in the middle and a carousel of rubbish handling and zero imagination says the guys on the park just have no urgency. Foot off the pedal? They don’t even know the car has a feckin pedal.
Then again, all employees operate within the culture of their organisation. And, taking cognizance of historical comments here, there is something rotten in the state of the SRU that allows a skewed patriocracy of complacency to make money at turnstiles while screwing up so many fundamental layers of our national game.
Why do we play the USA and Tonga, learning absolutely nothing that helps us against Tier One teams? The 2017 San Francisco Agreement apparently dumped Scotland into playing nursery outfits, unlike Wales and Ireland who have been granted full exposure to the top 3 teams in the world. My rough memory has Tom English saying we’ve played NZ 3 times in a decade, while Wales have played them 9 times. Etc etc.
Since June last year, Wales – utterly awful Wales – will have played Australia played 3 times, South Africa 3 times, NZ once. That’s 9 senior outings, and hidings. We’ve played those teams once. But, hold on, we’ve played USA twice, plus Portugal, Canada, Uruguay, Chile and Samoa. Wow, we won all those games. Bravo, Townsend.
When is this guy going to go? Next years’ Six Nations will be a slump to wooden spoon contenders again under Townsend. He has no humility, no vision, no anger. Release him down to the Gallagher 0-point failures (-152 points after five games) of Newcastle Red Arse Bulls. And let him take with him a great big bag of coal.
Townsend has said that fans expect to much from Scotland against elite nations ?
Who are these elite nations that Townsend doesn’t believe Scotland can beat ?
I guess if that’s the attitude of the coach you can’t really blame the players for lack of belief when the going gets tough.
Cotter and Hines got Scotland playing a great brand of rugby and really believing in themselves even more so when the going got tough .
Why did the SRU need to bring in Townsend at that time ?
think we learnt a lot more from the 2 defeats than the 2 wins – put it that way. Just such a frustration that we cannot push on to another level, despite having some great players.
Have zero expectations for the 6 nations – perhaps a really dire campaign will mean change will be inevitable
What did we learn from today? Well we went for 36 minutes without scoring against Tier 2 opposition who were mostly down to 14 men. Tom Jordan was seriously underused in the previous two games, incredible that he only got 1 minute against Argentina. Kyle Rowe is another very good player who is mostly ignored, him & Jordan are both better under the high ball & are better defenders than Kinghorn but Townsend can’t see that. Other than that it was great to see Fagerson back & George Horne runs great support lines.
It is hard to play in a mismatch , standards drop, lots of tactical spoiling. I expected clinical rugby and ruthless domination , especially when they dropped to 14 men.
I noted just before half time that there was a kickable penalty , just take it , close the half, I say. They went for the corner and got bullied out of the try. Where is the leadership !
Week in week out Glasgow complete those, against similar if not better quality players, so what on earth is going on.
The score was about right for the difference in world rankings , but it only got there as they run out of steam and our subs worked this week – Yes. But they had to be on the pitch to make a difference , contrast what happened last week !
All in all , job done, the crowd were underwhelmed.
Best thing about the Test was both sets of players coming together at the end in a gesture of mutual respect.
I learned nothing from today’s game. Or did I ! Actually I did. I think Tonga were prepared for dropping to 14. They play the game hard and on the margins. They forsee these things.
We on the other hand , have never been ready to draw level with NZ entering the last quarter.
Argentina : We lost a soft try and a second while we taking in what happened. We were not able to adapt. Just my opinion.
The team have to be confident in each other to cope with what the game throws at them. Maybe we should try less variety and more boring , consistent selection.
Regardless of your opinion of Toony, he has shown us just how many really great players , are able to play for us.
You obviously don’t watch rugby at club level.
What makes you say that !
Big fan of Sione but we haven’t had a captain with real leadership and game management since Greg Laidlaw. Anyone remember the last time we beat Ireland? A masterclass in game management, holding onto a lead and seeing the game out. Same when we beat Wales in that same 6N campaign.
Agree with the comments about Jordan and Rowe being underused. Unfortunately Townsend seems to have a pecking order with certain senior players undroppable regardless of what form they are in. I get that managing a group of players isn’t easy but it’s clear that he is focussed on maintaining the dressing room at the expense of merit based selections and team outcomes. He also seems to have the SRU suits in the palm of his hand and seems to get a new contract when his future is up in the air. I would love to see what Franco could do with this group especially with Finn’s year’s numbered.
Let’s all cheer and congratulate Huw Jones for the recognition and respect he is receiving from the top of rugby world.
It’s a huge accolade and Jones thoroughly deserves it. I was at Murrayfield in 2016 when he made, I think, his Scotland debut against the Wallabies. He looked a special player and a great prospect then. Overcoming long spells of injury and loss of confidence in him by club and country selectors since his Test debut, it’s extraordinary that he’s still going strong in an era when professional rugby these days is so attritional that any player who can compete at the highest level for so long deserves total respect.
Well done, Huw.
Hollie Davidson as well.
Based on this performance , where will we be this 6N ? Hopefully one in front and not behind Wales. In Cardiff ! Only if we are smart , keep the roof open , let the crowd go silent, put them under pressure etc.
We are not confident enough for Italy in Rome, they look great and are ruthless. England at home , is a possibility , but the odds are against us. I suspect France are still too strong, but they have off days.
Ireland , in Dublin , probably not. BVC’s win , when we sillyed them with Alex Dunbar in the line out , was at Home.
The All Blacks was an amazing match , The Puma’s …mind numbing. Hope to no hope in 7 days.
wooden spoon a real possibility – hopefully we can scrape a couple of wins. As an aside Glasgow had a mare tonight – error-strewn 80 minutes
They looked like a different side. Nothing worked and bulled by a lighter weight scrum. Dreadfull under a high ball though I would question the sufficiency of the lighting in such a dreich night. Well done Scarletts. Such a log run without a win at home must have been very hard to bear.