Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Four talking points ahead of Scotland's out-of-window Fiji Test

Scotland wing Darcy Graham shares a joke with Finn Russell after the Rugby World Cup France 2023 match between Scotland and Romania at Stade Pierre Mauroy on September 30, 2023 in Lille, France. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Despite missing several key players including Finn Russell and Blair Kinghorn due to their opening Autumn Nations Series fixture being outside the official Test window, Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend has named a strong side to face Fiji on Saturday.

ADVERTISEMENT

Scrum-half Ali Price and wing Darcy Graham both start their first Tests since last year’s World Cup while fly-half Adam Hastings, one of nine Glasgow players in the team, earns only his second start in an injury-ravaged two years since he last faced Fiji in 2022.

Here Townsend, embarking on his eighth season in the job, expands on some of his other selection decisions ahead of a November schedule which also brings South Africa, Portugal and Australia to Murrayfield.

Video Spacer

All Blacks coach Scott Robertson on what to expect from England | RPTV

New Zealand head coach Scott Robertson chatted to Lawrence Dallaglio ahead of the Autumn Nations Series clash against England. Watch the full interview on RugbyPass TV.

Watch now

Video Spacer

All Blacks coach Scott Robertson on what to expect from England | RPTV

New Zealand head coach Scott Robertson chatted to Lawrence Dallaglio ahead of the Autumn Nations Series clash against England. Watch the full interview on RugbyPass TV.

Watch now

New-boy Jordan is a studious learner – but can he sing?
New Zealand-born fly-half Tom Jordan, 26, has been named on the bench after completing a five-year residency period since first arriving in Scotland in 2019 to play club rugby for Ayrshire Bulls.

Fixture
Internationals
Scotland
57 - 17
Full-time
Fiji
All Stats and Data

His career has taken off with Glasgow over the last two seasons under Franco Smith, featuring in every game in their run to last year’s URC title and bringing an abrasive, physical edge at No 10, while proving equally adept at inside centre.

“I had a great chat with him last night,” Townsend said. “I found out more about his family and where he was brought up. Over the last five years since he’s been over in Scotland, I’ve enjoyed seeing how he goes about his work. He’s a learner, he’s very diligent in team meetings, the way he goes about asking questions.

“It’s obviously new for him, some of the language we use, little differences in game plan, but he’s been well prepared. I’ve loved watching him play for Glasgow and he relishes the contact side of it. We did have about five or six minutes of contact yesterday and he enjoyed that as much as the forwards did. He’s been great to work with.”

ADVERTISEMENT

As the only possible debutant on Saturday, Jordan is likely to undergo a squad ‘initiation’ by being asked to sing a song as the squad head back from Friday’s final team run. “There might be a song on the bus,” Townsend grinned. “That’s usually the case, and players do dread that more than probably the game at times. But we seem to have a good bunch of singers, so I think it’ll be OK.

“The Fagersons (brothers Zander and Matt) are good. Jamie Ritchie is a very good singer. Sione (Tuipulotu) is a good singer, but (his brother) Mosese was telling me this week that he’s much better than Sione at singing. They’re much more confident and better than we were. We were hopeless back in the day.”

Quiet man Rowe is making some noise
Glasgow’s Kyle Rowe is a specialist winger but in the absence of the unavailable Blair Kinghorn, will start at full-back for Scotland for a fourth time on Saturday as he wins his eighth cap overall.

He scored 12 tries for Warriors last season, already has three in five games this term and bagged his first two for his country against Chile on the summer tour. It was put to Townsend that Rowe might be the most in-form wing he has, despite established duo Darcy Graham and Duhan van der Merwe renewing their partnership on Saturday.

ADVERTISEMENT
Scotland Fiji
Kyle Steyn (L), and Kyle Rowe of Scotland during a training session ahead of their first Six Nations match with England this weekend, at the Oriam High Performance Centre on January 31, 2022 in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo by Mark Runnacles/Getty Images)

“Yes, you could definitely say that,” the head coach acknowledged. “He’s just growing in influence. Often after training sessions, we are talking about Kyle and how well he’s trained – his movement, his decisions – and we’re seeing that more and more come out in games, getting more touches on the ball. He is a quality player.

“To come back after being out for a year and having to leave London Irish because they went bust, it’s been great to see him now really in the selection mix for wing this week, even if we’re excited he’s playing at full-back.

“He’s quite quiet off the field, but on the field he’s loud. He communicates really well and you want that in a full-back, and anybody in the backline. You want that loud communication.

“I think he’s enjoying getting more touches on the ball, you can see that. He’s backing himself, whether it’s a little kick-through for others, for himself, or just running hard at the opposition. And you gain confidence with that. As it’s coming off, he’ll look to do that even more in the future.”

Fitter, stronger Price could yet be right for a second Lions tour
Ali Price’s Test career appeared to be winding down quietly after only featuring once off the bench in the nine Tests Scotland have played since their 2023 World Cup campaign.

But the 31-year-old, who has won 67 caps since his debut in 2016 and played in all three Lions Tests – starting two – on their 2021 South Africa tour, has come back reinvigorated after a summer off, losing weight and returning to top form lately with Edinburgh.

Ali Price Calcutta Cup
Ali Price. (Photo by Ross MacDonald/SNS Group via Getty Images)

Townsend was asked if it was possible Price could yet put himself in contention for another Lions trip as the countdown to next summer’s Australia tour gathers pace. “Well, yes, of course it is,” he said. “I think that might be the individual ambition of a number of our players this year. Ali’s really started the season in great form.

“He’s a very, very good passer. His kicking game has always been good and it was excellent on that Lions tour. So those are two fundamentals of playing nine. The other aspects are making sure you get to the breakdown, you get the ball away quickly and you contribute defensively. And he’s done that really well this season.

“It’s a fitter, stronger, refreshed Ali who’s confident with his running game, confident in defence but also delivering those fundamentals to allow others to play. The competition with George (Horne), Jamie (Dobie) and Ben (White) has brought the best out of Ali since he lost his position last year.

“Right now he’s the scrum-half that we feel is in the best form and can help us win at the weekend. And the opportunity is his to go and grab and continue to play and start for us over the next few weeks.”

Versatile Brown making waves as ‘hybrid’ forward
Gregor Brown’s selection on the bench as back-row cover, meaning former captain Jamie Ritchie misses out on the match-day 23 altogether, is more evidence of the 23-year-old’s rapid recent progress.

The Aberdonian replaced Richie Gray for the final quarter of Glasgow’s URC final victory over the Bulls, won his first three caps for Scotland in the summer – starting at six against Canada and Chile and lock against Uruguay – and has featured in all six games for Warriors this season, alternating between the second and back rows.

That versatility is clearly an attraction for Townsend, with Brown the sort of hybrid back-five forward that provides a head coach with options when deciding on his best 23 and where to try to impact a game.

Scotland Fiji Gregor Brown
Gregor Brown of Glasgow Warriors during the United Rugby Championship match between DHL Stormers and Glasgow Warriors at Danie Craven Stadium on October 26, 2024 in Stellenbosch, South Africa. (Photo by Grant Pitcher/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

“It’s definitely a bonus,” he said. “Probably to start at Test level, his best position would be blindside flanker. The real attributes there are he is hard-working, has a big tackle count, is a good ball-carrying player that can also add to the line-out. But if he has to move to the second row, like he’s already done at Test level, then he can do that.

“We’ve not got too many players that are maybe back-rows who can go to second row. We’ve always had a few second-rows that could go to the back row, so it’s interesting for us to see Gregor come through and play so well this season. We feel he’s really added something off the bench and made a big impact, so we want to see him getting that opportunity this week.”

Related

Watch the exclusive reveal-all episode of Walk the Talk with Ardie Savea as he chats to Jim Hamilton about the RWC 2023 experience, life in Japan, playing for the All Blacks and what the future holds. Watch now for free on RugbyPass TV

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 2 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

286 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ Why Freddy Douglas has played for Scotland before Edinburgh Why Freddy Douglas has played for Scotland before Edinburgh
Search