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'Well it's news to me that he's out for the Six Nations' - Townsend reacts to Hogg reports

Stuart Hogg (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Scotland coach Gregor Townsend is keeping his fingers crossed for good news as Stuart Hogg prepares to see a specialist about his injured shoulder.

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The Scottish star full-back was forced off just 17 minutes into Saturday’s Guinness Six Nations clash with Ireland following a collision with Peter O’Mahoney.

His absence for the rest of the Murrayfield clash proved a major blow for Townsend’s team as they struggled for firepower after the break, eventually slumping 22-13.

There were further worries for the Scotland faithful on Tuesday morning with reports claiming Hogg’s injury might now force him out of the final three fixtures with France, Wales and England and potentially his final six months with Glasgow before making a switch to Exeter this summer.

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But Townsend says he will wait to hear from a medical expert set to examine Hogg on Wednesday afternoon before making a final call on his participation in the rest of competition.

Hogg kicks ahead just before being injured by a late challenge from Ireland’s Peter O’Mahony
Hogg kicks ahead just before being injured by a late challenge from Ireland’s Peter O’Mahony (Ian Rutherford/PA)

“Well it’s news to me that he’s out for the Six Nations as we’re still waiting to see how he recovers,” said Townsend. “He’s about to see a specialist later today (Wednesday) so we’ll know more about his chances of playing over the next few weeks after that.

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“I’m very hopeful that he’ll get good news and that he’ll be available to play some part in the Six Nations.”

If Hogg does fail to recover in time to feature, Townsend insists he is happy enough with his cover at 15.

The British and Irish Lion was replaced by Blair Kinghorn against last year’s Grand Slam winners.

The young Edinburgh back scored Scotland’s first ever Six Nations hat-trick from the left wing against Italy in their tournament opener, and Townsend said: “Blair obviously had a great game against Italy. He backed that up on his first touch as he got through the Ireland defence on Saturday and being heavily involved in the second half.

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“It was just a pity that we didn’t get that multi-phase game that we got in the first half that would have allowed someone like Blair to get on the ball more.

“We’ve got good strength and depth in the back three. We’ve got Darcy Graham who has been playing really well for Edinburgh. Tommy Seymour and Sean Maitland have both played at full-back and are both very experienced players.

“I believe Byron McGuigan is back for his club this week, so if Stuart is missing – and I really hope that’s not the case – then we do have other players who have played international rugby and are in really good form.”

O’Mahoney’s off-the-ball tackle left Hogg clutching his shoulder in some discomfort but it was just as painful for the rest of his team as Ireland pounced on his lack of mobility to score a second try.

The Munster flanker faced no action from referee Romain Poite at the time and as yet has not been the subject of retrospective disciplinary proceedings, even though Townsend feels there is plainly a strong case to do so.

Speaking as his squad held an open training session in front of 2,000 fans in Clydebank, the head coach said: “It’s clearly a penalty and potentially worse because a player has tackled somebody without the ball and not used his arms to tackle. It was a late tackle as well.

“It’s really disappointing because it wasn’t checked. (The officials) could have gone back because it led to the try, so the TMO should have come in to check an incident that I’m sure the referee wasn’t 100 per cent clear on as it happened so quickly.

“It’s even more disappointing as we lost a player who would have covered the kick as well as the same player for the rest of the game through injury.”

Press Association Sport

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N
NH 28 minutes ago
'The Wallabies need to convert much better - or Melbourne could be much worse'

Nice one as always Brett. I think the stats hide a bit of the dominance the lions had, and they would look alot worse in that first half when the game was more in the balance. You mention it here but I think it hasn’t been talked about enough was the lineout. The few times the wallabies managed to exit their half and get an opportunity to attack in the 1st half, the lineout was lost. This was huge in terms of lions keeping momentum and getting another chance to attack, rather than the wallabies getting their chance and to properly ‘exit’ their half. The other one you touch on re “the will jordan bounce of the ball” - is kick chase/receipt. I thought that the wallabies kicked relatively well (although were beaten in this area - Tom L rubbish penalty kicks for touch!), but our kick receipt and chase wasn’t good enough jorgenson try aside. In the 1st half there was a moment where russell kicked for a 50:22 and potter fumbled it into touch after been caught out of position, lynagh makes a similar kick off 1st phase soon after and keenan is good enough to predict the kick, catch it at his bootlaces and put a kick in. That kick happened to go out on the full but it was a demonstration on the difference in positioning etc. This meant that almost every contested kick that was spilled went the way of the lions, thats no accident, that is a better chase, more urgency, more players in the area. Wallabies need to be better in who fields their kicks getting maxy and wright under most of them and Lynagh under less, and the chase needs to be the responsibility of not just one winger but a whole group of players who pressure not just the catch but the tackle, ruck and following phase.

17 Go to comments
J
JW 44 minutes ago
Competing interests and rotated squads: What the 'player welfare summer' is really telling us

Thanks for the further background to player welfare metrics Nick.


Back on the last article I noted that WR is now dedicating a whole section in their six-point business plan to this topic. It also noted that studies indicated 85-90% of workload falls outside of playing. So in respect to your point on the classification of ‘involvements’ included even subs with a low volume of minutes, it actually goes further, to the wider group of players that train as if they’re going to be required to start on the weekend, even if they’re outside the 23. That makes even the 30-35 game borderline pale into insignificance.


No doubt it is won of the main reasons why France has a quota on the number of one clubs players in their International camps, and rotate in other clubs players through the week. The number of ‘invisible’ games against a player suggests the FFRs 25 game limit as more appropriate?


So if we take it at face value that Galthie and the FFR have got it right, only a dozen players from the last 60 international caps should have gone on this tour. More players from the ‘Scotland 23’ than the more recent 23.


The only real pertinent question is what do players prefer more, health or money? There are lots of ethical decisions, like for instance whether France could make a market like Australia’s where their biggest rugby codes have yearly broadcast deals of 360 and 225 million euros. They do it by having a 7/8 month season.

68 Go to comments
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