A Depth Gauge For Scottish Rugby

LAST WEEK one of the shit-stirring Rugby Union pages on Facebook posted a South African depth chart – listing the 50 players who had started a Test for the World Champions during 2024. So, not to be out-done, I thought I would attempt the same exercise for Scotland.

In ranking our players, the dividing lines were: how often they started a Test, then bench appearances. Here are the results:

Loose-Head Props (5): Pierre Schoeman, Rory Sutherland, Nathan McBeth, Jamie Bhatti, Alec Hepburn.

Hookers (6): Ewan Ashman, George Turner, Dylan Richardson, Patrick Harrison, Robbie Smith, Johnny Matthews

Tight-Head Props (6): Zander Fagerson, Will Hurd, Murphy Walker, Elliot Millar-Mills, Javan Sebastian, D'Arcy Rae

Locks (5): Grant Gilchrist, Alex Craig, Ewan Johnston, Glen Young, Sam Skinner

Locks (4): Scott Cummings, Max Williamson, Richie Gray, Alex Samuel

Blind-Side Flankers (3): Matt Fagerson, Luke Crosbie, Gregor Brown

Open-Side Flankers (4): Rory Darge, Jamie Ritchie, Alex Onyeama-Christie, Freddy Douglas

Number Eights (3): Jack Dempsey, Josh Bayliss, Ben Muncaster

Scrum-Halves (5): Ben White, George Horne, Jamie Dobie, Gus Warr, Ali Price

Stand-Offs (5): Finn Russell, Adam Hastings, Tom Jordan, Ross Thompson, Ben Healy

Left Wingers (3): Duhan van der Merwe, Aaron Reed, Ross McCann

Inside Centres (3): Sione Tuipulotu, Stafford McDowall, Rory Hutchison

Outside Centres (3): Huw Jones, Cameron Redpath, Matt Currie

Right Wingers (2): Kyle Steyn, Darcy Graham

Full Backs (3): Blair Kinghorn, Kyle Rowe, Harry Paterson

Of the 59 players listed above – 53 actually started at least one of the 13 Test Matches Scotland played during 2024, the other six – props Alec Hepburn and D'Aecy Rae, hooker Johnny Matthrews, lock Sam Skinner, flanker Freddy Douglas and winger Ross McCann were restricted to bench duties. A further 11 players – 4 starters: (Gregor Hiddleston, Marshall Sykes, Tom Dodd, Moses Tuipulotu), 7 (Harri Morris, Mikey Jones, Fin Richardson, Olujare Oguntibeju, Lee McConnell, Ben Afshar, Jack Brown) off the bench – featured in the Scotland A team v Chile.

There were a further 15 previously capped players, still playing professional rugby but not used by Scotland during 2024. these players are:

Props: Allan Dell, Oli Kebble, Murray McCallum

Locks: Jonny Gray, Cameron Henderson, Jamie Hodgson

Open-Side Flanker: Hamish Watson

Number Eight: Magnus Bradbury

Scrum Half: Ben Vellacott

Stand Off: Dunky Weir

Winger: Damien Hoyland

Centres: James Lang, Mark Bennett

Full Backs: Ollie Smith, Stuart Hogg

Of the 85 players listed, it would be fair to assume the now Japanese-domiciled George Turner and Richie Gray and for other reasons the French-domicilied Stuart Hogg now come into the “When Hell freezes over” realm of being picked for the national team, which leaves Gregor Townsend with a player pool 82 players deep.

Sixty of these players (73%) are employed directly by the SRU via Edinburgh or Glasgow, which strikes me as being a very-healthy position. I think the national squad is in a good place moving forward.

The players were listed in each position, with the guy who wore that particular jersey most listed first, and so on. Thus, our First-Choice XV, in 1-15 order currently is: Pierre Schoeman, Ewan Ashman, Zander Fagerson, Grant Gilchrist, Scott Cummings, Matt Fagerson, Rory Darge, Jack Dempsey; Ben White, Finn Russell; Duhan van der Merwe, Sione Tuiopulotu, Huw Jones, Kyle Steyn; Blair Kinghorn.

Twelve of that First Team play for either Edinburgh (4 players) or Glasgow (8 players), which has me wondering, even allowing for the SRU's current precarious financial position, is there not a case for putting together a central contract scheme, which gave the national side priority access to our top players – they would still be available to th two professional sides, but, only playing in the really big games.

Money will always talk, and there will always be an English or French club willing to pay megabucks for a Russell or a Kinghorn, but, central contracts might keep one or two more in Scotland.

Taking more of the big names out of the weekly grind of club games in the BKT United Rugby Championship might, to a degree, hinder Glasgow's hopes of retaining theit title, but, from a Scotland perspective, it would give our coming men more exposure and better prepare them for the international game, and that's a systemwhich has worked fairly well for Leinster and Ireland.

Better still would be for professional Rugby Union in Scotland to be so-healthy as to see us with a third or even a third and a fourth full-time professional team in the URC, but, I fearf that is a pipe dream someone like me, in my eighth decade, will never see.

I BOW to nobody in my admiration for Finn Russell; we are bloody lucky to have him. Mind you, the unique talents of The Gallus One are not always appreciated beyond Scotland's borders.

However, it was enlightening to see, on Facebook a snippet of a BBC Wales interview with Sir Gareth Edwards in which arguably the greatest number nine – before Antoine Dupont waxed lyrical about Finn's talent and ability, putting him up there with his own legendary contemporaries – Barry John, Phil Bennett and Mike Gibson.

If Gareth thinks he's that good – who are we mere mortals to argue.