Thank Heaven That's Over

SCOTS – WHA'S LIKE US? We are seldom happy, are we? We have just completed an arduous four-game tour of the Americas – a Development Tour we should remember, UNBEATEN, but, even before the players had hit the showers the keyboard warriors were carping.

Have a think about it; this is Scotland, the nation whose sporting past is littered with: “Disaster for Scotland” headlines. We have lost to supposed lesser sides before, for a while, so I am not going to join the pile-on of Scotland fans who feel we ought to have scored more tries and won by a larger margin against Uruguay.

Final tour games are always potential banana skins. After a few weeks living out of suitcases in various hotels, many playeres' minds are elsewhere. The big cases are probably all but packed, the tour souvenirs have been acquired and the palyers thoughts are on the flight home, which is often the scene for the first real swally they have had in weeks.

OK, it wasn't pretty, but, Scotland got the job done and this hasn't always happened down the years. Also, look at our starting XV. We had perhaps four first-choice players on the field at the start. Another three first-choice players came off the bench, so, we only put out around half our optimum team and still won.

In the past, I have seen Scotland sides containing a higher numkber of first-picks lose to Tier Two teams, so, I am not going to moan about last night's victory.

So, what, if anything did we learn from winning in Montivedo. Well my takeaway is - Franco Smith has to be telt: “Jamie Dobie and Adam Hastings has to be your half-back pairing.” In my brief preview of the game, I mentioned how I was looking forward to seeing that combination going at a tiring Uruguayan defence, and I wasn't disappointed. They look like what will be needed to keep Warriors at the sharp end of the BKT United Rugby Championship. Looking ahead to the Autumn Internationals and the 2025 Guinness Six Nations – the notion of what MacMessi might be able to conjour-up on the end of Dobie's service excites me.

Going on the evidence of Super Rugby, I rated Alex Samuel ahead of Max Williamson, but injury has somewhat arrested Samuel's development, and Williamson hasn't half taken advantage to move ahead of him. Depending on how Smith rotates his stellar array of locks at Scotstoun, on the evidence of this tour, the age of Scott Cummings and Williamson as our international boiler-house pairing is not that far ahead. And by the way, as the excellent David McAdam pointed-out in a BTL comment on The Offside Line a couple of days ago, we have frightening depth at lock.

Other thoughts from Montivedio, someone has to have a word with Huw Jones, yes he makes searing breaks, but, once or twice he died with the ball when off-loads appeared to be on, to keep the attack flowing. Then there is Duhan van der Merwe; yes he has broken the Scottish all-time try-scoring record with indecent haste, but, as was once said, of a Brazilian footballer, the original Ronaldo I think: “When he isn't scoring – what does he do?”

His defensive efforts can be embarrassing, he couldnae tackle a fish supper, but when he gets the ball in space – Wow! But, and what a shame there has to be a but, he doesn't trample defenders in the way the blessed Jonah used to – or maybe, today's defenders are better than Mike Catt & Co.

Speaking of defence, I see our professionals, full-time rugby players, still have not learned to lower their tackle height. Once or twice our high tackles were cruelly exposed by the Uruguayans.

What else did I take from the Tour. I am told the Church of England faithful are encouraged to pray for the health of their King and Royal Family on a regular basis. Can we have a word with The General Assembly and have Church of Scotland members praying for the health of Zander Fagerson; since the tour again demonstrated, ther is a big drop-down in standard when Zander is absent.

I still say, of the home-based props, the closest to Zander is still D'Arcy Rae. But the big boy from Troon is seemingly in the “Only to be used in emergencies” category at the moment.

For the internationals. I reckon Will Hurd is probably the current favourite to wear the number 18 jersey.

Given the back-row depth we have, Gregor Townsend has some thinking to do before the AIs and the 6Ns. With a nod to how the French management used The G.O.A.T. In the Olympic Games Sevens, Toony, John Dalziel etc have to decide, to we put Jamie Ritchie and Matt Fagerson in the starting XV, or do we unleash them off the bench as grnuine “Finishers?” Questions, questions, but, what are the answers?

A final word on the Tour – this is the comment which Iain Milne posted on TOL on Saturday night: “Just a game too far. Won’t matter a jot come the Autumn or the next 6 Nations. Will have learned some players can move up to the big time and others won’t.”

Short, succinct, as ever the “Bear” necessities of good comment.

FINALLY – I cannot let this past weekend be put to bed without mentioning the Olympic Sevens, and The G.O.A.T.

There must have been a feeling in the higher echelons of the FFR, to just put Antoine Dupont on and let him work his magic. But, no, they held him back and used him as the impact player of all impact players.

Just look at the statistics from the final. The game was tied when he was unleashed, he scored two tries, and had an assist for the third – now Eddie Jones, that is the epitome of the impact player.

In his report on the Opening Ceremony from Paris, The Guardian's Barney Ronay described Celine Dion's performance as being a case of: “Things are not going well, send on Messi.”

The Dein' Sea Lion was good, but, she didn't have the impact of sending on Dupont.

 

Toony Tombola - The Numbers

THE GAME of “Toony Tombola” is much talked-about in Scottish Rugby, with commentators regularly suggesting that our esteemed Head Coach is inconsistent when it comes to the players he has selected over his 80-plus games in-charge, since he succeeded Vern Cotter in the job in early 2017.

So, with little else to distract me in this short close season – Season 2024-25 is a mere five and a bit weeks away – I thought I would crunch the numbers.

Toony inherited a fit 33 man squad from Cotter. He took 31 of them off on a Summer Tour in which they played Italy, in Singapore, Australia and Fiji. The other two capped players he inherited: Stuart Hogg and Tommy Seymour were in New Zealand with the British & Irish Lions, where they were subsequently joined by two of the Scottish Tourists – Finn Russell and Allan Dell.

On that Summer Tour, centre Nick Grigg became the first player to be capped by Townsend, who has subserquently capped a further 72 players. He has also brought back 20 players who had been capped before he got the Head Coach's job.

 

This means Townsend has capped a total of 122 players

Of these 122 players, 35 have subsequently retired

A further 11 can be considered – surplus to requirements

While a further 5 are currently (perhaps temporarily) out of the professional game

The 73 players first capped by Townsend have come in the following series of games:

2017 Summer Tour – 1

2017 Autumn Tests – 7

2018 Six Nations – 1

2018 Summer Tour – 4

2018 Autumn Tests – 2

2019 Six Nations – 4

2019 World Cup Warm-Ups – 4

2020 Six Nations – 2

2020 Autumn Tests – 3

2021 Six Nations – 3

2021 Autumn Tests – 12

2022 Six Nations – 4

2022 Summer Tour – 1 + 6 A caps (five of whom have subsequently been capped)

2022 Autumn Tests – 1

2023 Six Nations – 1

2023 World Cup Warm-ups – 2

2024 Six Nations – 3

2024 Summer Tour – 11 + 1 A cap upgraded to a full cap

So, of the 72 new caps honoured, Townsend's preferred timing of their capping is:

First capped in a Six Nations campaign – 19

First capped on a Summer Tour – 17 + 5 A caps, subsequently upgraded

First capped in the Autumn Internationals – 25

First capped in World Cup warm-up games – 6

He appears to prefer to cap players off the bench – 45 players have been capped this way, against 22 first capped from the starting XV. Of the six A caps he has awarded, the split was 3 starters, plus 3 off the bench.

The players initially capped at A level – against Chile in 2022 - were Ben Muncaster, Matt Currie and Ollie Smith, who started that game, with Johnny Matthews, Murphy Walker and Glenn Young coming off the bench. Only Muncaster has still to upgrade that A cap to a full one. Perhaps, since the game against Chile this year was a full-cap international, Muncaster should join the ranks of the retrospectively capped players.

As things stand, Townsend has at his disposal 73 already-capped players (including Muncaster):

Of these 51 play for either Edinburgh or Glasgow and are therefor SRU employees

A further 22 play outwith Scotland

There are a further 27 uncapped Scotland-qualified players employed by the SRU at either Edinburgh or Glasgow (This number includes Glasgow's Tom Jordan, who is in the final weeks of qualifying on residency).

The Edinburgh and Glasgow Academies also have a total of 29 younger players on their books.

 

 

The spread of the players capped by Townsend is:

Loose-head props – 6

Hookers – 10

Tight-head props – 5

Locks – 10

Back row players – 12

Scrum-halves – 5

Stand-offs – 4

Wingers – 9

Centres – 9

Full-backs – 2

Some players can play in and have been capped in more than one position, but I have listed them in their more-usual position here.

As things stand, Townsend can select the Scotland team from a pool of 100 players, 73 already capped and a further 27 uncapped.

The positional depth of these players already-capped players is:

Loose-head props – he has 7 to choose from

Hookers – he has 8 to choose from

Tight-head props – he has 7 to choose from

Locks – he has 11 to choose from

Back rowers – he has 10 to choose from

Scrum-halves – he has 6 to choose from

Stand-offs – he has 5 to choose from

Wingers – he has 6 to choose from

Centres – he has 7 to choose from

Full-backs – he has 3 to choose from

The depth chart of the 27 uncapped Scotland-qualified players on the books of either Edinburgh or Glasgow is:

Loose-head props – 2

Hookers – 2

Tight-head props – 2

Locks – 4

Back rowers – 5

Scrum-halves 3

Stand-offs – 3

Wingers – 3

Centres – 2

Full-backs – 1

In addition, I have counted-in as available to Scotland if required, the uncapped Northampton Saints lock Callum Hunter-Hill, since he has been in one or two Scotland squads without ever being capped.

He could select three totally different XVs, and still have in reserve:

Six capped loose-head props

Five capped hookers

Four capped tight-head props

Five capped locks

One capped back-row player, plus one A cap

Three capped scrum-halves

Three capped stand-offs

Two capped centres.

Assuming everyone is fit and firing, this is our international depth list (as ever in 1-15 order):

First XV: Pierre Schoeman, Ewan Ashman, Zander Fagerson, Richie Gray, Grant Gilchrist, Jamie Ritchie, Rory Darge, Jack Dempsey; Ben White, Finn Russell; Duhan van der Merwe, Sione Tuipulotu, Huw Jones, Kyle Steyn; Blair Kinghorn.

Second XV: Rory Sutherland, George Turner, Elliot Millar-Mills, Scott Cummings, Sam Skinner, Matt Fagerson, Hamish Watson, Josh Bayliss; George Horne, Adam Hastings; Kyle Rowe, Stafford McDowall, Cameron Redpath, Darcy Graham; Ollie Smith.

Third XV: Jamie Bhatti, Johnny Matthews, Will Hurd, Alex Craig, Glenn Young, Gregor Brown, Andy Christie, Luke Crosbie; Ali Price, Ben Healy; Aaron Reed, James Lang, Matt Currie, Ross McCann; Harry Paterson.

Back-up Squad of already-capped players:

Loose-head: Nathan McBeth, Alex Hepburn, Allan Dell, Oli Kebble

Hooker: Dylan Richardson, Patrick Harrison, Robbie Smith, Dave Cherry, Grant Stewart

Tight-head: Javan Sebastian, Murphy Walker, D'Arcy Rae, Murray McCallum

Locks: Max Williams, Ewan Johnston, Cameron Henderson, Jamie Hodgson, Marshall Sykes

Back-row: Magnus Bradbury

Scrum-halves: Gus Warr, Jamie Dobie, Ben Vellacott

Stand-offs: Ross Thompson, Duncan Weir

Centres: Mark Bennett

Back-up Squad of uncapped players:

Loose-head: Robin Hyslop, Mikey Jones

Hookers: Gregor Hiddleston, Angus Fraser

Tight-heads: Fin Richardson, Angus Williams

Locks: Callum Hunter-Hill, Alex Samuel

Back-row: Euan Ferrie, Ally Miller, Ben Muncaster. Connor Boyle, Tom Dodd

Scrum-halves: Ben Afshar, Charlie Shiel, Sean Kennedy

Stand-offs: Tom Jordan*, Cammy Scott, Richie Simpson

Wingers: Logan Trotter, Jake Henry, Ruaridh McConnachie

Centres: Mosese Tuipulotu, Duncan Munn

Full-backs: Nathan Sweeney

This list demonstrates, Townsend has left few stones unturned in his journey to put a winning Scotland team on the field. You might argue with his pecking order, when he overlooks a personal favourite.

However, I challenge any critic of the “Toony Tombola” method of team selection to name a Scotland-qualified professional player – other than Adam Ashe - who the Head Coach has NOT considered for Scotland duty.

I would suggest too, we have never before had this much player depth from which to select the Scotland team.

There is imbalance in player resources between the two SRU-owned professional sides, however, that is, if that situation is a failing, something for elsewhere inside Murrayfield than Toony's office. It is also a situation which could be easily solved by the formation of a third professional side. Again, something to be dealt with elsewhere in Murrayfield.

Finally – before Season 2023-24 is finally put to bed, Toony has named the following squad for Saturday's international against Uruguay in Montivedio:

Rory Sutherland, Ewan Ashman, Javan Sebastian, Max Williamson, Scott Cummings, Luke Crosbie, Rory Darge (Captain), Matt Fagerson; George Horne, Ben Healy; Duhan van der Merwe, Stafford McDowall, Huw Jones, Kyle Rowe; Harry Paterson. Replacements: Patrick Harrison, Pierre Schoeman, Murphy Walker, Gregor Brown, Jamie Ritchie; Jamie Dobie, Adam Hastings, Kyle Steyn.

Hardly a selection with shock inclusions, the big news being that Huw Jones will win his 50^th cap on the day. It will be interesting to see what happens in the final quarter, when Messrs Dobie, Hastings and Steyn are unleashed on a tiring Uruguayan team; and, will Duhan van der Merwe get the possession to claim the all-time Scottish try-scoring record on his own.

 

Sorry Scotland, But You Didn't Measure Up To Linda

SCOTLAND'S win in Chile wasn't quite the highlight of Saturday night; after it ended I discovered a terrific documentary on BBC2, all about the wonderful Linda Ronstadt – sorry guys, you just don't have that level of star quality.

Any way, it maybe took Toony'steam a wee while to get up to speed, hardly surprising given the Coach had made another raft of changes to his starting XV, but, the growing maturity of our international squad meant, for once, watching a Scotland team minus our big guns, I was not looking for banana skins.

Credit to the Chileans, they offered stout resistance, but, the boys in blue stuck to their processes and in the end, won well. Mind you, I have to admit, watching the game, I thought Mathieu Raynal, who has, in the past, been guilty of not giving Scotland as much of the rub of the green as we felt we deserved, in this, his final international, did let us away with one or two sort of iffy decisions. At least two of our tries might not have survived a forensic TMO review – but, them's the breaks in the game.

Those regulars who were on all performed up to expectations, but, this game was more about less-exalted specimens putting their hands up for a bit more game time. For instance, we know, all being well, up until the next World Cup, the ten jersey will be worn in big games by MacMessi, but, who pulls the strings when The Gallus Genius is missing is still up for debate.

OK, he came on with the game won and the opposition fading, but, for my money, a fit and firing Adam Hastings is a better bet than Ben Healy – although, the Edinburgh man did surprise us with one searing outside break in the first half.

Nathan McBeth enhanced his reputation, he and the quietly-effective Will Hurd had the Chile front row in all sorts of bother, while the relatively untested locks stoked the boiler-room like veterans.

The guy who did impress me, however, was Jamie Dobie, who, when he moved in to nine got the back line firing better than Gus Warr, who did nothing wrong, had managed.

Off the bench, Matt Currie – and it hurts to say this given how much I have admired him over the years – now looks like a sharper 13 than Mark Bennett. He runs the lines Marko used to come up with, before injuries blunted his effectiveness a tad. We now have genuine midfield depth, which is great going forward.

It will be interesting to see how we line up against Uruguay on Saturday, since we have some big names chomping at the bit to get back onto the park. The suggestion is that this fourth game will be the toughest of this tour, but, I am looking forward to it, I think we can complete a clean sweep, with another few tries scored.

BBC Scotland gave Rugby an unexpected boost on their channel, by taking their Scottish coverage to New Anniesland, where wee Dunky Weir played a blinder. I also thought Fraser Brown gave some interesting insights in his role as colour commentator.

WHILE I appreciate our next-door neighbours from south of the Solway will always run them very close, and on occasions leave them trailing, the more time I spend on Facebook and other social media platforms, the more I am convinced – Spitting Image nearly got it right all those years ago and nice South Africans are a bit like hens' teeth.

I write this after seeing some absolute toxic pish from Saffers, because oor ain wee Hollie Davidson had the temerity to send off a Springbok for what was clearly a dangerous, head-on-head tackle in their game against Portugal.

For me. It was a sending off offence every day of the week. But, what really gets me is this: the players must by now be aware, in the current climate around player safety, high tackles are always liable to get you, at the very least, ten minutes in the sin bin.

World Rugby has already lowered the legal tackle height in the amateur game, the governing body's failure to bring in the same ruling for the professional game strikes me as a total failure of governance.

We really MUST have the lower tackle height imposed on the elite game, and we MUST also have it policed adequately. And while I am at it, it's time the coaches at the elite level were telt in no uncertain terms, “Teach your guys to tackle lower and make them do it in games”.

I accept, there will always be isolated incidents where bad tackles are made; you can never totally eliminate head-on-head collisions from the game, but, we have to get serius about making such collisions far fewer and further between.

But, as things stand, reducing one team to 14 men, because some player got his technique wrong, perhaps through blind panic, spoils a match, which a lot of people paid good money to watch.

There is, I feel, a case for bringing-in “Technical Offences” where it is accepted, the perpetrator of the foul merely got his technique or timing wrong, and there was no presumption of foul play, and treating these offences different from “Serious Foul Play” is deemed to have taken place.

A red card for a Technical Offence could see the sent off player immediately replaced, while a “Serious Foul Play” offence would mean, at the least a “20 minute red card” . I don't think, in the present climate, spectators want to see a lengthier spell of 14 v 15.

The Shoots Of Recovery May Take Time To Bloom

OK – IT WAS perhaps “Only the USA” that we beat; and we ought never to have been in that competition in the first place, but, our Under-20s winning the World Rugby Under-20 Trophy was still a rare Scottish victory in a golbal event. It has got us back to the top table of the game at that age group, the challenge now is to stay there, and get into the top half of the top 12 nations.

This will not be easy, however, given our Men's A team is currently ranked Sixth in the World Rugby rankings, it should be reasonable for us to expect the same from our Under-20 team. With home advantage and, having narrowly failed to win in the las running of the same competition, Scotland was under pressure of expectation at The Hive, so we have to say well done to Head Coach Kenny Murray and his team for matching the expectations from the body of the kirk within the game up here.

Kenny will now be determined to see next season's squad, which will hopefully contain a central core of the younger players this season, train-on to finish higher than even 11^th place, next season – the one which guarantees we stay in the Under-20 Championship rather than the Trophy.

Two things worry me, however, around the support Kenny and his players will receive for next season:

1. Will the players receive enough game time between now and the 2025 Six Nations, then, between that competition and the 2025 Championship?

2. Will they have the basic skills necessary to compete in these events?

To date there has been more hot air generated around the first of these questions than around the second. I believe, however, the second question is the more-serious. I was shocked somewhat at the handling errors made by the players against the USA, and in the matches before that.

Maybe I am expecting too much, however, I firmly believe players, wearing the thistle in a major international competition, ought to be able to give and take a pass under pressure, I felt over the Trophy event as a whole, some of our players failed this basic test, too often.

I would be loath to criticise Kenny Murray for these failures, Kenny is a fine coach, but, at his level, the job is all about setting tactics and targets, he should expect that the players he is given charge of can do the basics to a very-high standard.

That they cannot is a criticism of the clubs more than the SRU. Mind you, I believe this is a United Kingdom failing – I see the same inability to perform basic skills under pressure in representative UK teams in other sports.

[I recall, some years ago, a conversation I had with an American basketball coach, who had agreed to come over here and work for a season. He was with a club which, at the time, had perhaps the highest reputation in this country for youth development. The American, however, told me, when he asked the British kids to work on weaknesses in their game, and gave them American drills to follow, he found, unless they were closely monitored, they would only do the designated drills for a short time, before reverting to practicisng the things they could already do well.

Then there is the legendary story of the exchange between World Cup-winning England Manager and the Leeds United and England trainer Les Cocker, discussing the notoriously “one-footed” Leeds player Norman Hunter.

Ramsey said to Cocker: “Les, I thought, after the last game, I asked you to work on Hunter's one-footedness”.

Cocker responded: “We have boss, that's the foot we've been working on”.]

This comes down, perhaps to the culture within too-many clubs; where winning is more important than ensuring that the players at their disposal can do the basics really well. It has long been evident in sports such as football, that4 our continental rivals are, by and large, more technically proficient than our home-grown British players.

The clubs and by extension the association high heid yins know this, but they have never exactly burst a gut to alter this long-standing situation. We still have Scottish defenders, playing in our so-called Premier Division, who: “couldnae trap a falling bag of cement”.

[Some 20 years ago, Scottish athletes in Great Britain teams were as rare as hen's teeth; while the standards domestically were low. Scottish Athletics took a long, hard look at things and one of the failings they identified wa in the number and quality of club coaches they had. They took steps to rectify the problem and the result is the large number of Scottish athletes who will be wearing the GB vest in Paris next month.

Yes, the likes of Eilish McColgan, Josh Kerr, Neil Gourlay and Jake Wightman have talent, but, it took the hard work and dedication of the coaches and the staff at Scottish Athletics to bring-out that talent and get them to the sport's top table.]

I honestly believe, the Scottish Rugby Union is lagging behind other unions when it comes to coach recruitment and education. Several leading Scottish coaches, the likes of Mike Blair and Kenny Murray, have been put through official coaching courses, but, in truth, not many of them are currently coaching in Scotland.

As I see it, there is not a culture of respecting coaches and coach education in either

Scottish Football or Scottish Rugby. Changing this will not be a quick, or easy fix, but, unless we do this, then we will be in trouble.

I have long advocated the SRU becoming more like the SFA. The guys running our round ball game might not be the brightest, but, I would suggest the SFA is a more-democratic organisation than the SRU.

For instance, the SFA has its Congress, which meets three times per year, bringing together representatives from all the leagues and all the subserviant associations, the Youths, Schools, Juniors etc., the referees, the official supporters clubs, even the media – Chick Young is the official media Congressman.

I have often heard long-serving Scottish club officials decrying the loss of the old Districts, whose meetings gave everyone a chance to meet and discuss things. Starting an SRU Congress might well solve that failing.

In the SFA, your club has to meet certain standards to get into certain leagues, we ought to be looking at that in Scottish Rugby.

We can but hope, when he is eventually appointed, after he sorts out the finances – which has to be his Number One Priority, our new CEO, maybe gives some thought to the overall governance of the game, in which case, we might make progress.

 

Independence Could Be Good For The SRU

I OFTEN received criticism from regular readers of the blog, when I parade my belief in Scottish Independence. “Stick to Rugby Union”, I am advised: “because your politics are shite”.

Maybe so, but they are my beliefs and even though these are difficult times for those of us who believe Scotland would be a much-better country outside this damned Union, I am sticking with them.

I honestly believe too, Scottish Rugby would be in a lot healthier position if Scotland was an Independent Nation. With independence, for instance, we would see decisions as to how our game was covered by the media made in Scotland, rather than, as at present, being made in London.

OK, we would still have to overcome the media's obsession with Football, which is now apparently the only game in town. However, I am sure, with the big decisions made in Scotland, this imbalance in favour of the round ball could be overcome.

A Scottish broadcasting company ought to be instructed, forced even, to ensure that Rugby Union, such an important part of Scottish sporting life, was adequately covered by that company. This would surely be an important part of the remit of an Independent Scottish Government, to get all our international teams out there in front of the public – on free to air television.

Independence for Scotland would also get us into the Olympics. With Sevens now established in the Games, we would have to take the short game seriously, which would be another boost for Rugby Union.

But, for as long as the major decisions are made on the banks of the River Thames rather than the Rivers Clyde or Forth, we can expect Scottish Rugby, like Scottish sport in general, to not receive the coverage it deserves from our media.

OK, our schedule, playing matches against Tier Two nations, while the other three British Isles teams were facing Tier One opponents, wasn't ever going to get us anything other than scant coverage. However, I firmly believe, had Scotland been going to New Zealand and England to Canada and the USA, then England would still have been first choice for coverage from the broadcasters.

SELECTION, particularly at International level, is often the subject of intense media speculation. For the first century and more of organised international team sport, international team selection was in the hands of a selection committee. Today, in the age of The Coach as God, selection is in the hands of whoever has the big job at the time.

It appears to make little difference to the public. Teams selected by committee were frequently criticised, and today, the guy who carries the can still gets slated for some selections. However, we have to accept, that old chestnut: “opinions are like erse-holes, everybody has one” particularly comes into play in sport.

Today, Gregor Townsend frequently gets slated for his team selections: “Toony Tombola” - a perception that perhaps the Scotland Coach makes too many changes to teams and squads – is frequently thrown at him.

It surfaced again this week, when the changes to personnel on the continuing Skyscanner Tour of the Americas were announced. Cue the usual suspects among the keyboard warriors venting their spleen on the BTL part of The Offside Line.

A look at his record in his seven years in charge actually demonstrates, Townsend has been a reasonably conservative coach when it comes to team selectioon:

• He has been in-charge over 82 internationals

• He has used 121 players in these games

• He has awarded first caps to 70 players in his 82 games in charge

• In 2017, his first year as Head Coach he capped 8 newcomers

• In 2018, he capped 7 newcomers

• In 2019, he capped 8 newcomers

• In 2020, he capped 6 newcomers

• In 2021, he capped 15 newcomers

• In 2022, he capped 12 newcomers

• In 2023, he capped 3 newcomers

• In 2024 so far, he has capped 12 newcomers

Of the 70 players capped for the first time by Toony, 46 won their first cap off the bench, so he has consistently blooded newcomers alongside tried and tested internationalists.

Of the 121 players Toony has used over his tenure, 47 have either retired, or are no longer in contention for international selection. Of the 74 who are still active professionals and seemingly in-contention for Scotland selection, 49 are on the books of either Edinburgh or Glasgow – the other 25 play for non-Scottish clubs.

The breakdown of capped players by position is:

• Loose-head props 10

• Hookers 12

• Tight-head props 9

• Locks 16

• Back rowers 21

• Scrum-halves 10

• Stand-offs 8

• Centres 14

• Back Three 21

So, if they are Scotland-qualified and playing professionally, Toony knows of them and has almost certainly given them their chance.

There will almost certainly be two or three more new caps in the two remaining games of the tour, but, looking ahead, perhaps the biggest selection drawback which Toony has to contend with is giving the fringe players the experience and chances they need to train-on and be in contention for games in the Six Nations.

There is a lot of talk of more A team games, there is the problem of properly developing the players coming out of the Under-20 squad, against a background of a lack of money in the SRU coffers. But, we will not even get a pointer as to what is happening until the vacant but highly-important jobs at Scottish Gas Murrayfield are filled; and filling these roles is taking a lot longer than we would wish – further indication that, maybe it wasn't all TCD's fault that the SRU was in a bad way.