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Ford primed to make Scotland history

Scotland’s Ross Ford

Ross Ford is set to make history on Saturday after being selected to face Fiji in what would be a record 110th appearance for Scotland.

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The Edinburgh hooker is primed to overtake Chris Paterson as his country’s most capped player when Gregor Townsend’s men conclude their three-match tour in Suva.

Townsend oversaw a stunning 24-19 win over Australia last time out and makes 12 changes for this weekend’s clash, with Nick Grigg handed a debut at centre.

“It’s a great storyline that we have Nick making his international debut at the same time as Ross will make history and become the most capped Scot of all time,” said Townsend.

“Ross has been an outstanding tourist, both on and off the field. This week he has been driving our standards and working as hard as usual to make sure we get our preparations right for what will be a very tough game.”

Ford, 33, made his international debut against the Wallabies in 2004 and has featured in three World Cups, as well as the 2009 British and Irish Lions tour.

Scotland XV: Ruaridh Jackson; Damien Hoyland, Nick Grigg, Duncan Taylor, Tim Visser; Peter Horne, Henry Pyrgos; Alex Allan, Ross Ford, Willem Nel, Tim Swinson, Jonny Gray, John Barclay, John Hardie, Josh Strauss.

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Replacements: Fraser Brown, Gordon Reid, Zander Fagerson, Ben Toolis, Hamish Watson, Ryan Wilson, Ali Price, Greig Tonks.

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AM 42 minutes ago
'Freelancer' Izaia Perese shows the need for true inclusivity in Australian rugby

That's Cron's job though. Australia has had one of the most penalised scrums in international rugby for a long time. Just look at the scrum win loss percentage and scrum penalties. That is your evidence. AA has been the starter during that period. Pretty simple analysis. That Australia has had a poor scrum for a long time is hardly news. If bell and thor are not on the field they are woeful. So you are just plain wrong. They have very little time for the lions so doing the same old things that dont work is not going to get them there.


Ainsley is better than our next best tighthead options and has been playing well at scrum time for Lyon in the most competitive comp in the world. Superstar player? No. But better than the next best options. So that is a good enough guide. The scrummaging in the Prem is pretty good too so there is Sio's proof. Same analysis for him. Certainly better in both cases than Super, where the brumbies had the worst win loss and scrum pen in Super. Who plays there? Ohh yes... And the level of scrummaging in Super is well below the URC, prem and France with the SA teams out.


Nongorr is truly woeful. He's 130kg and gets shoved about. That just should not be happening at that weight for a specialist prop who has always played rugby cf pone with leauge. He has had enough time to develop at 23. You'd be better off with Pone who is at least good around the field for the moment and sending Nongorr on exchange to France or England to see if they can improve him with better coaching as happened with Skelton and Meafou. He isn't going to develop in time in super if he has it at all.


Latu is a better scrummaging hooker than BPA and Nasser. and he's the best aussie player over the ball at ruck time. McReight's super jackling percentage hasnt converted to international level but latu consistently does it at heniken level, which is similar to test level in the big games. With good coaching at La Rochelle he's much improved though still has the odd shocker. He should start the November games.

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