Scotland’s team for Saturday’s test at BT Murrayfield has been announced and no doubt the players and coaching staff will be completely focussed on this match. After all, there is a team from a country called New Zealand who play in black who are in town. However, looking beyond this test would like to discuss the match day squad that would preferably be doing duty at Rugby Park, Kilmarnock, against Tonga next weekend. Rugby Park is the home of Kilmarnock football team, yes that can be confusing but that is not the topic of the this piece.
Scotland’s head coach Vern Cotter has selected the same starting XV that beat Argentina to face the All Blacks , one wonders when last a Scotland coach picked the same XV for consecutive matches. For Tonga though I would suggest wholesale changes to the team for a variety of reasons, the main one being – Glasgow Warriors.
The Scottish Rugby Union (SRU), unlike the case in South Africa, have a direct stake in the two professional clubs here: Edinburgh Rugby and Glasgow Warriors, and it is with this in mind that my suggestion for the Tonga test is made.
It may seem strange to suggest that the national team must consider the team below it, especially coming from someone who proclaims that international rugby should the pinnacle of our game. However, the viewpoint regarding Scotland picks and Glasgow Warriors is more than a year old as it was on my mind ahead of last years Autumn Internationals. The argument was possibly stronger particularly when one bears in mind that at that time Scotland were playing under a caretaker coach and now we are one year closer to the World Cup with the coach who will be taking Scotland there and one that we had to wait for at least a year to start after his initial appointment.
Glasgow Warriors play Scarlets next Friday night and I believe the SRU should be doing their best to try and aide them in trying to pick up 5 valuable log points from that match. They can do this by picking as many players based outside Scotland as possible and releasing the Glasgow Warriors players not picked quite early in the week back to Glasgow’s head coach Gregor Townsend to work with ahead of their game time against the Scarlets. The aim surely has to be to help Glasgow end top of the PRO12 table to ensure at least a home semi-final and hopefully thereafter a home final. The Warriors have shown steady progress under Gregor Townsend, reaching last years final but eventually losing it to Leinster – away from home. Winning the PRO12 will surely give Scottish Rugby a huge confidence boost.
Edinburgh Rugby play Cardiff Blues on Sunday and although they have been hit very hard by injuries they also need to try and take points of Cardiff Blues to try and assist Glasgow Warriors in their PRO12 endeavors.
Another reason for choosing more of the players based outside of Scotland is that it gives Vern Cotter a bit more time to work with them and also assess their performance under pressure in a match situation ahead of the Six Nations. The last test Scotland played on their Summer Tour fell outside the international window and so the coach was not able to chose these players, giving him less time to work with them than he would have had with the locally based players. Vern Cotter must be based in Scotland and as the SRU have a direct say in matters at the professional clubs he can easily cast a direct eye on the locally based players at any time he chooses, whereas his window on players plying their trade outside the country is more often limited to video analysis.
One could also argue that there is little between some of the players included and those not included as all of the players have international experience with Scotland and surely by being able to get deals with other clubs outside of Scotland they are good enough.
Potential Scotland team to face Tonga:
Here is the Scotland team that I would like to see being announced to play against Tonga. There may be some errors with some players possibly being injured, and perhaps a few chosen out of position, while players not currently in the Scotland squad have been included.
Scotland: 15 Stuart Hogg (Glasgow Warriors), 14 Max Evans (Castres), 13 Richie Vernon (Glasgow Warriors), 12 Duncan Taylor (Saracens), 11 Tim Visser (Edinburgh), 10 Tom Heathcote (Edinburgh), 9 Chris Cusiter (Gloucester), 8 Kieren Low (London Irish), 7 Blair Cowan (London Irish), 6 Alasdair Strokosch (Perpignan), 5 Jim Hamilton (Saracens), 4 Richie Gray (Castres), 3 Geoff Cross (London Irish), 2 Scott Lawson (Newcastle Falcons), 1 Ryan Grant (Glasgow Warriors)
Replacements: 16 Fraser Brown (Glasgow Warriors), 17 Euan Murray (Glasgow Warriors), 18 Moray Low (Exeter Chiefs), 19 Johnnie Beattie (Castres), 20 John Barclay (Scarlets), 21 Greig Laidlaw (Gloucester), 22 Alex Grove (Worcester Warriors) 23 Sean Lamont (Glasgow Warriors)
Looking at the team there will do doubt be many picks that get folk shaking their head, but when has an international team been picked that has satisfied all the fans in all positions.
In part two of this article, which will follow in the next few days, we will look at some of the reasoning behind the picks I have made.