Gregor Townsend has challenged Scotland’s fringe men to use this weekend’s warm-up match against Italy to play their way into the World Cup squad and avoid being part of the dreaded cull early next month.
The head coach has named an experimental 23 for the visit of the Azzurri, with Glasgow centre Stafford McDowall set to make his debut, Edinburgh number 10 Ben Healy handed his first start and Luke Crosbie and Murphy Walker given rare chances in a starting XV that will be captained by 23-year-old Glasgow flanker Rory Darge.
Jamie Dobie, Josh Bayliss, Javan Sebastian and the uncapped Cam Henderson are among a group of relatively inexperienced internationals among the replacements.
Saturday’s run-out at Murrayfield is the first of four warm-up matches and Townsend plans to trim his 41-man provisional squad to 33 after next weekend’s match at home to World Cup hosts France.
The head coach admits performances this weekend could sway his decision over certain positions.
He said: “100 per cent. We’ve not got a big squad. It’s 41 so the players know that in each positional group there’s probably one person who might not go to the World Cup. It’s not two or three.
“Not everyone is going to get an opportunity to play in these games, but those who have that opportunity can put their best foot forward to make selection more difficult than it is.
“We’ll be announcing to our group quite early, it might be after next week’s home game against France rather than waiting for the away game (the following weekend), so we can start working with a 33-man squad.
“The games are part of it (the selection process), what they’re doing in training is another, especially now we have got to more competitive, live rugby, a lot of guys are putting their hand up.”
Townsend anticipates having his World Cup squad finalised by the time they travel to France for their third warm-up match in St Etienne on August 12.
The head coach is braced for some tough conversations.
“We’ve already had initial chats with coaches and they’re dreading the moment when we have to say it’s you who’s made it but you’ve just missed out,” he said.
“It will be tight on two, three, four, five selections, but we’re going to have to come to that call.
“For those who will miss out, they’ve got to be ready. There will be injuries. There will probably be injuries over these four Tests, never mind the World Cup. We know our squad is ready whoever gets picked.”
Glasgow’s Ollie Smith will win his fourth cap this weekend as Scotland begin life without recently-retired full-back Stuart Hogg.
The 22-year-old will vie with Edinburgh’s Blair Kinghorn for the number 15 jersey vacated by the national team’s record try-scorer.
“It was a surprise to me because he’d trained with us at the beginning of the camp,” said Townsend, speaking for the first time since Hogg’s retirement a fortnight ago.
“I’ve got to credit what he’s done for Scottish rugby and for letting us know at that time so we can move forward to the Tests.
“With Ollie starting this weekend and Blair on the bench covering both 10 and 15, they’ll get more opportunities than they might have if Stuart had still been in the squad.”
— Scottish Rugby (@Scotlandteam) July 26, 2023
Scotland team to face Italy
Forwards: 1 Rory Sutherland (unattached), 2 George Turner (Glasgow Warriors), 3 Murphy Walker (Glasgow Warriors), 4 Sam Skinner (Edinburgh Rugby), 5 Scott Cummings (Glasgow Warriors), 6 Luke Crosbie (Edinburgh Rugby), 7 Rory Darge (CAPTAIN, Glasgow Warriors), 8 Matt Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors)
Backs: 9 Ali Price (Glasgow Warriors), 10 Ben Healy (Edinburgh Rugby), 11 Kyle Steyn (Glasgow Warriors), 12 Stafford McDowall (Glasgow Warriors)*, 13 Chris Harris (Gloucester Rugby), 14 Darcy Graham (Edinburgh Rugby), 15 Ollie Smith (Glasgow Warriors)
Replacements: 16 Stuart McInally (Edinburgh Rugby), 17 Jamie Bhatti (Glasgow Warriors), 18 Javan Sebastian (Edinburgh Rugby), 19 Cameron Henderson (Leicester Tigers)*, 20 Josh Bayliss (Bath Rugby), 21 Jamie Dobie (Glasgow Warriors), 22 Blair Kinghorn (Edinburgh Rugby), 23 Cameron Redpath (Bath Rugby)
* Denotes uncapped player