Getting Into a Spin Over Squad Rotation

FURTHER TO my previous post, on squad depth; there is another key part of running our two full-time professional squads which will be crucial over the next pod of games; and that is squad rotation.

The players from Scotland's Autumn Internationals squad have now gone back to their clubs. These clubs now have ten fixtures, with full squads – barring the injured – before the start of the Six Nations 2022 – when they again lose players to the national team.

Gregor Townsend and his management team cannot do a lot to influence how the players playing outside Scotland are handled over these ten fixtures, but, I dare say, they can have a say in how Mike Blair and Danny Wilson rotate their squads to balance the slightly differing needs of their club side and the national XV. How they do this could have a bearing on how we perform come the Six Nations.

I have had to absorb a bit of incoming flak, for questioning the sense of Glasgow signing Ewan Ashman for the remainder of the season. I am not questioning his talent, merely asking: Do they need him?

Here we are, in the final week of November, here is a breakdown of Glasgow's front row use thus far this season, during which they have played just five games:

• Game 1 – Ulster: 1-2-3: Brad Thyer – Johnny Matthews – Simon Berghan

• 16-17-18: Jamie Bhatti – Fraser Brown – Murray McCallum

• Game 2 – Cell C Sharks: 1-2-3: Bhatti – Brown – McCallum

• 16-17-18: Thyer – George Turner – Murphy Walker

• Game 3 – Lions: 1-2-3: Bhatti – Brown – McCallum

• 16-17-18: Bhatti – Matthews – Oli Kebble

• Game 4 – Zebre: 1-2-3: Bhatti – Matthew – Kebble

• 16-17-18: Thyer – Brown – Enrico Pieretto

• Game 5 – Leinster: Bhatti – Matthews – Zander Fagerson

• 16-17-18: Kebble – Turner – Pieretto

Looking at that as an individual break-down, we find:

Brad Thyer: start – bench – idle – bench – idle – 1-2-2

Johnny Matthews: start – idle – bench – start – start – 3-1-1

Simon Berghan: start – idle – idle – idle – idle – 1-0-4

Jamie Bhatti: bench – start – start – start – start – 4-1-0

Fraser Brown: bench – start – start – bench – idle – 2-2-1

Murray McCallum: bench – start – start – idle -idle – 2-1-2

George Turner: idle – bench – idle – idle – bench – 0-2-3

Murphy Walker: idle – bench – idle -idle -idle – 0-1-4

Oli Kebble: idle – idle – bench – start – start – 2-1-2

Enrique Pieretto: idle – idle – idle – bench – bench – 0-2-3

Zander Fagerson: idle – idle – idle – idle – start – 1-0-4

Nathan McBeth and Tom Lambert (loose-heads), Grant Stewart (hooker) and Ewan McQuillin (tight-head) have still to play this season.

I accept, because of the Lions tour, Zander Fagerson is a special case, however, both he and George Turner have started more games for Scotland this season than for their club – that's not right somehow. Also, surely there is some way that the four guys who haven't even seen bench duty this season can be afforded game time.

Might it be that our two wholly-owned full-time professional teams' managements have contracted the Murrayfield virus – they are busy empire-building and not delivering what we at the clubs are looking for – value for money.

Question – do we really need such large squads? And, are all our full-timers good enough for full-time contracts? Just asking.

To perhaps answer this, I split the squad into its component parts:

Glasgow have 45 full-time players (47 when you include new arrivals Ewan Ashman and Josh McKay); Edinburgh has 43 players. The squad category splits are:

• Currently in the Scotland squad: Glasgow 17 (37%) - Edinburgh 13 (30%) of squad

• Past Scotland internationalists: Glasgow 7 (16%) - Edinburgh 7 (17%) of squad

• Not Scotland Qualified: Glasgow 7 (16%) - Edinburgh 10 (23%) of squad

• Uncapped Scots: Glasgow 14 (31%) - Edinburgh 13 (30%) of squad.

• The 17 Scottish Internationalists, currently in the national squad, between them have racked-up 54 starting or bench appearances out of a possible 85 this season – that's a 47% involvement record from 37% of the Glasgow squad

• The 7 past Scottish internationalists, no longer in the national squad, have between them racked-up 23 starting or bench appearances out of a possible 35 this season – that's a 20% involvement record from 16% of the squad

• The 7 Not Scottish Qualified players have between them racked-up 16 starting or bench appearances out of a possible 35 this season – that's a 14% involvement record from 16% of the squad

• The 14 Scottish Qualified but uncapped as yet players have between them racked-up 21 starting or bench appearances out of a possible 70 this season – that's a 18% involvement record from 31% of the squad.

A similar exercise with the Edinburgh squad produced these results:

• The 13 Scottish internationalists currently in the international squad have between them racked-up 38 starting or bench appearances out of a possible 65 this season – a 33% involvement record from 30% of the squad

• The 7 past Scottish internationalists, no longer in the national squad, have between them racked-up 18 starting or bench appearances this season out of a possible 35 – that's a 16% involvement record from 17% of the squad

• The 10 Not Scotland Qualified players have between them racked-up 28 starting or bench appearances this season out of a possible 50 – that's a 24% involvement record from 23% of the squad

• The 13 Scotland Qualified but uncapped players have between them this season racked-up 27 starting or bench appearances, out of a possible 65 – that's a 24% involvement record from 30% of the squad.

These figures lead me to believe, the management's thinking when it comes to team selection is:

• Glasgow: first choice – a current Scottish cap; second choice – a past Scottish international; third choice – an uncapped Scot; fourth choice – a Non-Scotland Qualified player.

• Edinburgh: first choice – a current Scottish cap; second choice – a Non-Scottish Qualified player; third choice – a past Scottish internationalist – fourth choice – an uncapped Scot.

In England and France, where the clubs are all-powerful and promotion and relegation is a reality (although relegation is currently frozen in the Gallagher Premiership) – the need to survive means the top players are used more-often. This is such a problem the RFU has had to negotiate a deal with the clubs, whereby, in return for only playing their England internationalists in a set number of games, they get a nice wee bung from HQ. The non-English players such as Messrs Hogg, Gray, Skinner and Hidalgo-Clyne at Exeter Chiefs therefore have to perhaps play more games to take-up the slack.

In Ireland, as to some degree in Scotland, all the top players are owned by the Union, so HQ can to an extent dictate which games and how often they play. This has over the years seen copious “It's not fair” features in the English rugby press, bemoaning the fact the top Irish stars are only ever seen in the colours of Connacht, Leinster, Munster and Ulster in the big European games and the matches at the sharp end of the League season.

The Irish certainly appear to be more-willing to blood young players and give them experience than our two clubs, for whom the youngsters are third or fourth choices for league games.

My own view is – We do not need to recruit non-Scottish players to the extent we have been. There is no relegation in the United Rugby Championship, so the statements from BT Murrayfield that we need to recruit non-Scots to keep us competitive when our internationalists are away with Scotland – THAT'S PISH.

The URC has done away with matches during the Autumn Tests and the Six Nations, which knocks the reasoning for recruiting experienced non-Scots into the long grass. Indeed, maybe it is time the strategic thinkers at BTM looked at their strategy for this league.

The 18 game regular season will see Edinburgh and Glasgow play each other twice – home and home. They will also play Zebre Parma and Benetton home and home in the Italian/Scots Shield Group. They also play the other 12 teams once, either home or away to complete the regular season.

Route One into Europe the following season is to win your Shield Group, thus guaranteeing a place in the following season's Champions Cup. If you don't win your group, which European competition you play in depends on your overall league place.

So, under this system, the most-important games in your season are the six against the other three teams in your group. Even if these are the only games you win all season – it gets you into Europe.

I would suggest, if nowhere else, you want your best players fit and firing on all cylinders in those games. For the other fixtures, you can play around with squad rotation as you wish.

So, maybe we should be following the Irish lead and giving our young talent a chance to show what they can do.