The Scotland Eight
Plus: Irish rugby loses its mind, return of the 'A' fixture and summer tour.
WELCOME BACK: what a time to be a Scottish rugby fan, fresh off confirmation that eight of our finest have been selected for the Lions tour to South Africa. In this week’s newsletter we step down from cloud nine and try to objectively assess Warren Gatland’s touring party, whilst revelling in the tears of Irish rugby punditry. We also take a look at Scotland’s confirmed summer internationals, run the rule over yet another 1872 cup match and report on our Scots playing the game abroad.
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THE SCOTLAND EIGHT: last Thursday’s eagerly anticipated squad announcement confirmed that 8 Scots have been included in Warren Gatland’s Lions tour party for their upcoming South Africa trip this summer.
After 45 painful minutes of build up, the chosen 8 were: Chris Harris, Stuart Hogg, Ali Price, Finn Russell and Duhan Van Der Merwe in the backs; and Zander Fagerson, Rory Sutherland and Hamish Watson in the forwards.
Even the most one-eyed of Scotland fans would have struggled to imagine such large Scottish representation, but it would appear a few marginal calls have (for once) gone our way. This is likely due to the combination of the national side’s generally good form in the last 2 years, and the presence of Townsend and Steve Tandy on the Lions coaching ticket.
If ever in doubt, we look to Scottish rugby-Peep Show hybrid memes to sum up the national mood:
VOTE OF CONFIDENCE: a certain New Zealand half back revealed the players he was most looking forward to seeing on the tour:
CRYING INTO THEIR GUINNESS: one of the strangest/most enjoyable sights in the aftermath of the squad announcement was the general meltdown of Irish rugby, from players, pundits and journos alike, in response to the notable omissions of the likes of Sexton, James Ryan and Garry Ringrose.
Neil Francis (Ireland’s answer to Stephen Jones), writing in the Irish Independent, launched a bizarre tirade in which he accused Townsend of subconsciously revealing his pro-Scottish bias to the press and claimed that no Scottish player is good enough for the test side, before launching into a bizarre comparison of Scotland rugby and the overly-inflated prices of today’s big tech stocks.
His argument that Gatland was looking for “any excuse” not to pick Jonny Sexton is ever so slightly weakened by the fact the coach has selected Old Jonny in his last 6 Lions tests. You would also think that Robin MacBryde, one of Sexton’s current coaches at Leinster, could have provided some support for the Irish pivot.
Certainly the Scottish players would have benefited from the presence of Townsend and Tandy, but this has been the case for Lions tours immemorial (the 2009 tour, when English forwards coach Graham Rowntree slapped down Ryan Grant’s tour credentials in favour of Mako Vunipola, springs to mind). Also, can you really see a situation where the perennial pragmatist Gatland would allow himself to be overruled by Gregor Townsend, let alone Steve Tandy?
This piece was followed by Eamon Sweeney, who whilst approaching the topic from a slightly more rational standpoint, was still under the impression that Townsend had delivered an Obi Wan Kenobi mind trick on Gats.
There is certainly a strong case for taking the likes of Ryan, Ringrose, Sexton etc, but the way several Irish rugby commentators twisted this into an attack on the chosen Scots seems odd at best, and highly disrespectful at worst. Why is Gatland suddenly incapable of picking the best possible squad for the task at hand? In the same way that conspiracy theories around Dublin running the global game are a load of nonsense, perhaps the argument that a pro-Scots faction has infiltrated Lions selection should be similarly disregarded…
THE CLICKS, MAN: Nevertheless, from a purely selfish perspective, these sorts of articles give us great material for content, although even we would admit we may have overdone the memes this week…
In honour of our Lions heroes we’ve summarised a few tribute videos dedicated to members of the Magnificent Eight (there shockingly isn’t a Zander specific tribute video):
Hamish Watson:
Duhan McVan Der Merwe:
Chris Harris:
ROBMAC: we are delighted to continue our partnership with sponsor RobMac, which so far has witnessed the Scotland national side make history on two separate occasions, and overseen the best Scottish Lions representation for many a tour.
RobMac are an independent financial advisor specialising in mortgage management, financial planning and investments. We know the team at RobMac well and they are just as keen on Scottish rugby as we are so it makes a great fit.
You can check them out at robmac.co.uk
1872 CUP: In line with the general inconsistency of Scottish club rugby this year, Glasgow followed up their embarrassing loss to Benetton with a 29-19 win over Edinburgh on Friday night. Even with a 24 - 9 penalty count in their favour, Cockerill was unable to #unitethecity and take down a fourth 1872 cup. The match was a strange one…at times exciting, deeply frustrating throughout, some moments of class and really really long…like really long.
When Glasgow review the game tape from last Friday they will realise they made it a lot harder for themselves than it needed to be - Edinburgh’s attack truly is the stuff of nightmares…but in a bad way. However for Glasgow there were glimmers of hope for the future (I’m sure next week when Glasgow inevitably get pumped 50-0 we will swing massively in the other direction):
Ali Price was absolutely class, especially in the first half and will hopefully carry this form into the Lions
Ross Thompson has maybe been the surprise of the year. After his first match for Glasgow, the Thistle was unconvinced he had the chops to play pro rugby and we are delighted to be shown up once again as complete mugs.
Kyle Steyn is an absolute worldy - big question for Danny Wilson is over whether he plays wing or outside centre. Whilst he looked great on the wing this Friday, it would be interesting to see what him and Johnson could offer in the centres outside Ross Thompson and inside an electrifying young back three.
Cole Forbes might be nailed on 1st choice XV going into next season and we wouldn’t be surprised to see him slip on a navy blue shirt this summer. A back three of Forbes, McLean and McKay is just damn sexy
For Edinburgh, they could call upon a world class pack, won 24 penalties and enjoyed the majority of possession and territory, yet still couldn’t do much apart from a few driving mauls. The Edinburgh attack is as blunt as a Cockerill interview - whether it is the players, the coaching, the strategy or all of the above, something has to change.
SUMMER TOUR AND ‘A’ FIXTURE: Scotland’s summer tour schedule was confirmed this week, with a European tour consisting of 2 tests against Romania (10th July) and Georgia (17th July). A Scotland ‘A’ fixture against their English counterparts at Welford Road has also been organized for the 27th June (the day after the Lions play Japan at Murrayfield). Both are welcome additions to the test calendar.
The tour represents a good chance to build depth in certain positions and dip into what is an increasingly long tail of exciting youngsters. Flights from Edinburgh to Bucharest are currently floating at the £50 mark…
Is this close to how could a possible touring squad look like? NB this gives Jonny Gray and Fraser Brown a rest with a view to building depth in key positions ahead of the next World Cup.
SCOTS ABROAD
Gallagher Premiership
Sale v Leicester: Rodd (1), McGuigan (14) and Ashman (16) v Henderson (4) and Hurd (18).
Northampton v Gloucester: Hutchinson (13) and Dingwall (22) v Chapman (9)
Exeter v Worcester: Hogg (15) and Skinner (5) v Miller (16)
Newcastle v London Irish: v Cowan (7)
Bath v Bristol: Redpath (12), Bayliss (6) and Bhatti (17) v Kerr (16) - Jake Kerr has joined the Bears until the end of the season, having been recently released by Leicester.
Harlequins v Wasps: Lang (22) - who looked in good form ahead of his move up to Edinburgh - v
In the Top 14, Finn was up to his usual tricks in Racing’s match up with Clermont. How good?
Meanwhile in the US MLR, former Edinburgh man Dougie Fife continues to dominate proceedings state side and is currently 2nd in the try scoring charts (behind a certain DTH Van Der Merwe), while the LA Giltinis are top of the pile thanks to contributions from Glenn Bryce and Adam Ashe. Times are slighly leaner for Scottish rugby spin-off and Thistle favourites Old Glory DC, who sit bottom of the Eastern Conference, although they did secure an encouraging draw at the weekend versus a high flying NOLA Gold side.
AOB: with hugging potentially back on the menu for the general populace, friend of the pod Graham Love reminded us that risk free hugging just isn’t an option.
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Make sure to check out this week’s extra special episode with Jonnie Beattie:
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