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Four talking points from Scotland's win over Italy
By Bryn Palmer
Cherry pick proves fruitful for Townsend
In explaining why – to widespread surprise – he had chosen Dave Cherry at hooker over his Edinburgh club-mate Ewan Ashman, who started all three of Scotland’s major autumn Tests, Townsend explained the 34-year-old was primarily in because of his set-piece accuracy and experience.
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“But there’s more to Dave’s game than that,” the head coach added after handing Cherry only a fifth Test start, perhaps not wanting to pigeon-hole him as purely a man for the essential nuts-and-bolts elements of a hooker’s role.
Not even Townsend can have been expecting the sumptuous slice of skill the follically-challenged front-rower delivered in the 29th minute though.
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After Scotland kicked a penalty to the corner and Jamie Ritchie safely pouched Cherry’s lineout throw, the Edinburgh hooker attached himself to the back of an advancing maul before breaking off, barging through the attempted tackle of Italy scrum-half Martin Page-Relo and unleashing the sort of offload – off the floor, out the back of his hand – of which Sonny Bill Williams would have been proud.
“I didn’t really see it but Gav Vaughan, our analyst, said ‘Oh, I think that’s a cat-flap offload out the back there’,” said Townsend. “I’ve been winding up Dave, saying I thought it was actually the defence that knocked the ball out.
“He did really well. Dave got a lot of carries in the first half, our lineout was very accurate – I think we won 100 per cent of the ball – and there’s a lot of front-five defensive work that goes in both from Dave and Ewan.”
Scotland did indeed win all 13 of their lineouts and Cherry also contributed seven tackles and seven carries on his return from 16 months in the Test wilderness since being forced to leave the 2023 World Cup after sustaining a concussion falling down the stairs on a team day off.
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Speculation has continued to swirl in Scottish rugby circles about the incident, but Townsend was adamant when announcing his team that Cherry’s subsequent absence from the squad was not a disciplinary issue.
With his previous first choice George Turner exiled in Japan, Ashman – yet to start a Six Nations match – still maturing as a Test hooker, the promising Paddy Harrison still a greenhorn at this level and Dylan Richardson and Gregor Hiddleston both injured, Townsend decided that Cherry represented a value bet. It’s paid off handsomely so far.
Jones keeping up with deadly wings Darcy and Duhan
Huw Jones had already become the most prolific try-scoring centre in Scottish history when he moved past the great Alan Tait with a brace against Fiji last autumn.
The 31-year-old’s hat-trick against Italy moved him past Tommy Seymour’s 20 and lifted him up to joint-sixth on Scotland’s all-time list with 22, alongside former wing/full-back Chris Paterson, whose tally came from 109 Tests.
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Jones’ have come in 54, an impressive ratio of 0.41 per Test. While the battle between Duhan van der Merwe (30 tries in 45) and Darcy Graham (29 in 43) to be Scotland’s top try-scorer has garnered attention of late, is there a better out-and-out finisher to be found in a home nations midfield – or any other in the world for that matter – than Jones right now?
His first two owed everything to anticipation, supporting breaks by Van der Merwe and Graham and getting his reward. But the way he intuitively sized up the opportunity when faced with three Italian defenders for his hat-trick score, stepping inside Paolo Garbisi and away from two more would-be tacklers to stretch over, was the mark of a player at the top of his game.
If he wasn’t already on Andy Farrell’s radar for the British & Irish Lions’ expedition to Australia this summer, he has surely been put in the ‘probable’ category now.
“He scored three tries today, but I reckon Huw has probably missed out on another five or six tries over the last few games because he’s just not had the ball,” Townsend said. “He offers himself on brilliant lines that sometimes fix defences and other people get the space. He supports really well and today the ball found him, through his work off the ball.”
Townsend is also increasingly enthused by the role Van der Merwe and Graham are playing in creating tries for others, rather than taking all the glory themselves.
“With our wingers everybody wants the narrative to be that they’re chasing a try-scoring record, but they put passes in for assists like they did against Australia,” he added. “That backline has really functioned well as unit. They’re playing for each other, they’re supporting each other, no matter who’s playing.”
Jordan applying pressure for starting role
With his inspirational captain Sione Tuipulotu ruled out of the Championship with a chest muscle injury, Townsend had a decision to make at 12, where Stafford McDowall, Tom Jordan and Rory Hutchinson were all vying for a start.
He plumped for McDowall, a physical presence in attack and defence, and by and large was rewarded with some hard carries into the midfield traffic and doughty defence, even if there were none of the line breaks or left-footed kicks threaded through the opposition defence which have become regular features of his game at Glasgow.
“Staff came in, did really well, did a lot of the hard work, carried hard with the forwards close to the ruck as well, which can shape a defence and open up space for the outside backs,” Townsend noted.
Then again when Tom Jordan, a regular at fly-half for Warriors, replaced his club-mate after 56 minutes, he gave Scotland’s attack a slightly different, threatening dimension.
His pinpoint long pass off his left hand created the chance for Jones to claim his third try while Jordan’s aggressive defence also made an impression as Italy battered away in the final 10 minutes.
“Tom called the ball that led to our final try, so just having that second receiver on the field [was beneficial],” Townsend added. “In the Six Nations you need to use a lot of your bench because it is such a tough form of rugby.”
Jordan, who looked instantly at home in the Test arena during the autumn when deployed at full-back, may remain on the bench for next Sunday’s visit of Ireland, but he has certainly given his coaches further food for thought as they ponder whether to change a winning team.
Can Scots find an answer to Irish question?
With the main objective achieved despite a nervy third quarter and a bonus-point victory in the bag, thoughts quickly turned to what shapes as the pivotal game of Scotland’s campaign next Sunday, the visit of defending champions Ireland.
When Townsend was asked what his side have to do to beat a side that have so far proved unbeatable in 10 matches on his watch, his initial response was of the flippant variety. “Score more points than them,” he said. Touché.
While the head coach and his players will not be short of motivation to reverse that trend and Townsend will no doubt have been plotting for this eventuality for a while, Ireland’s opening win over England merely served as a reminder of the gargantuan hurdle Scotland must overcome at Murrayfield if they are to sustain their bright start and launch a credible title challenge.
“We’ve got to improve from how we played today but that would have been the case anyway,” Townsend said. “It’s the first game, and an eight-day turnaround gives us time to recover physically to look at where we need to build on the positives but also things we need to fix.
“We’ll obviously be aware of what Ireland are going to bring. We know the tests that are coming but that was a really good test today as well. Italy will be a serious opposition for every team in the championship, they were for us today. I believe we’ll have to be better than we were today to win.”
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