Worrying injury list mars Scotland's redemption against the French
Gregor Townsend says injury is likely to rule Sam Skinner, Tommy Seymour and Blade Thomson out of Scotland’s third World Cup warm-up match against Georgia. The trio picked up injuries during this weekend’s gritty 17-14 victory over France and are highly unlikely to be involved in Tbilisi next Saturday.
Seymour and Thomson look the more likely to recover in time to be named in the final 31-man squad for the World Cup on September 3, assuming there are no significant hold-ups as they progress through the head injury return to play protocol.
Skinner is the bigger concern. He was clearly in pain as he hobbled off the field in the 61st minute at Murrayfield with a hamstring injury. Townsend said: “It is always disappointing when you see someone getting injured and it may mean that they miss the World Cup. Sam Skinner, out of the three, looks to be more of a serious injury. He’ll get scanned tonight and we’ll know more about him later tonight, so fingers crossed for all three players.”
Townsend went on to praise Thomson’s performance on his Scotland debut and acknowledged that the fact the New Zealand-born back-row missed most of last season with a head injury adds extra anxiety. He continued: “He played very well. He was aggressive in defence. He carried well, made the right decisions – when to set up a ruck and when to try and get in behind the defence – so he was excellent.
“I just hope that the HIA (head injury assessment) that he failed means that he doesn’t have to miss any more than the minimum time out of the game. You look at his history. He obviously had one serious head injury in November and it took him a long time for him to come back before playing two games at the end of the season.
REPORT | Tries by Maitland and Harris help Scotland come from behind to defeat France at a sold-out BT Murrayfield.
➡️ https://t.co/e8DItzlkPO pic.twitter.com/tlkoxZxe4e
— Scottish Rugby (@Scotlandteam) August 24, 2019
“He has since trained with us and he hasn’t had any head injuries in that time but since that one kept him out for such a long time it will be taken into account. Tommy failed an HIA, too. He got a couple of hits and the second one was when he started to get symptoms, so he went off the field then and failed his HIA. On a wider issue, it will be a real challenge for teams to deal with at a World Cup.
“Normally when you get a calf injury, a rib injury or a dead leg, you know the timeline for people coming back, but with head injuries you don’t. There is a minimum time but, as you know, people can be out for weeks and months, and we’ve got to give them that time to come back.”
Tommy Seymour took no pleasure from seeing positional rivals in the Scotland squad flop last Saturdayhttps://t.co/JOnDIlqUlj
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) August 22, 2019
The injuries were a downer on a generally uplifting day for Scotland. Although their performance fell some way short of their fluid best, they managed to squeeze out a win which will go a long way to banishing the painful memory of last week’s heavy loss to the same opposition.
The coach continued: “Performance-wise, I wouldn’t know what to rank it. I felt in the first 20 minutes we were on our game and that wasn’t getting shown on the scoreboard because a couple of times France scored off our possession.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B1jLdeFIeLD/
“But I just felt that with the bite in the tackles, the speed of ball we were getting and where we were attacking France, it looked like us out there. It wasn’t the perfect performance – clearly not – but what I found really satisfying was how the players found a way to win.”
– Press Association
WATCH: Billy Vunipola issues an update to RugbyPass about brother Mako’s injury playing for England on Saturday
Comments on RugbyPass
Dagg is still trying to get enough headlines to make himself relevant enough to get a job. The Crusaders went back to square one at all levels. Shelve this season and nail the next one.
4 Go to commentsHe was in such great form. Sad for him but only a short term injury and it will be great to see him back for the finals.
1 Go to commentsAfter their 5/0 start, I had the Crusaders to finish Top 4 only…they lost the plot in Perth but will reload and back themselves vs 4th placed Rebels…
3 Go to commentsBoth nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
3 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
3 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
37 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
3 Go to comments