When he took to the field as Scotland cap number 1 073, Josh Strauss became the 50th player to make his debut for the national side since the last Rugby World Cup in 2011. This is by far the highest number of new players for Scotland in any Rugby World Cup cycle – more, in fact, than the previous 2 combined (48 new caps). It requires going back to the 1950s to find a greater number of 1st caps in a 4 year period.
Despite having the smallest player base of any of the Six Nations, Scotland has had more debutants than any of their rivals:
- England – 41
- France – 40
- Ireland – 37
- Italy – 31
- Wales – 37
In fact only 1 side who competed at this year’s Rugby World Cup awarded more new caps in the last 4 years. By a quirk of the global calendar Argentina didn’t have access to many of their 1st (or even 2nd) choice players when the South American Championship takes place and 54 of their 67 new caps (including 24 in the space of 5 days in 2013, the last year they appeared in it!) debuted in the annual iterations of this tournament.
23 Of the Scottish players capped since the last Rugby World Cup were included in the 31 man squad for this year’s tournament. The rest of the squad was made up of 4 players first capped during the 2011 Rugby World Cup cycle and 4 players first capped during the 2007 Rugby World Cup cycle. There were no players included who were capped prior to the 2003 event. Only 1 player from this era is still even playing pro rugby – a stat that surely makes Mike Blair feel rather old! Sean Lamont was the Scotland squad’s longest serving player, having 1st run out on the 4th of June 2004 and he has now played international rugby in 12 different seasons.
The selectorial net was cast increasingly wide as the Rugby World Cup neared and each of the 3 coaches in this period contributed players capped on their watch to the final squad.
Of the 13 new caps awarded by Andy Robinson after the 2011 Rugby World Cup debacle up to his departure, 7 made the squad.
For Scott Johnson it was 8 of the 17 men who made their bow under the hirsute Australian.
And for Stern Vern himself? Well he looked at no less than 20 new players in his 1st 15 months as Scotland coach, 8 of whom made it to England for the 2015 tournament – it would have been 9 but for the unfortunate injury to the luckless Stuart McInally.
The biggest contributors to the national side over this period were the Glasgow Warriors, with 28 of their players gaining their 1st cap (29 if Hugh Blake is included despite not playing a game for Glasgow prior to making his bow for Scotland). Removing those non-qualified and already capped, a player with 5 or more starts for the Warriors since the end of the last Rugby World Cup had a 70% chance of playing a Test match!
The number of new caps is a result of a major overhaul of the squad since the previous Rugby World Cup in New Zealand and only 6 players had previous experience of a Rugby World Cup tournament. This time round the group that came so close to a semifinal place is young enough to provide the bulk of the squad for the next Rugby World Cup. Hopefully the experience gained will stand them in good stead to perform even better in Japan.
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