Fagerson has come a long way since Townsend gave him Shepherd's crook
Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend has handed Zander Fagerson his 50th cap eight years after giving the prop a professional debut at the age of 18.
The Glasgow player will reach his milestone when Scotland take on Argentina on Saturday in the summer tour series decider in Santiago Del Estero.
Townsend noted Fagerson was a “very young age” to reach his half-century, four years younger than 30-year-old Hamish Watson achieved the same feat last week.
And the former Warriors head coach always felt the front-row forward was destined to achieve quickly.
“He was very strong as a 17/18-year-old,” said Townsend, who has made eight changes. “When he first came into the programme, he played really well for the under-20s, and through training and learning, we saw he was getting close to professional level.
“He played well at professional level at a very young age and he had some moments that didn’t go that well for him. I remember Scarlets away, I had a difficult decision to make, when you have to take someone off before half-time, but that did happen to Zander in one of his first outings for Glasgow.
“But you often learn more from those occasions than when you have played at your best.
“But Zander has always been driven to improve, he cares a lot about this team, and he has got extra motivation every time he plays with his brother (Matt). They are bringing the best out of each other.
“He has been consistent for us over the past number of years. He brings so much more than just scrummaging, but last Saturday was one of his best scrummaging performances of the season.
“His work in contact is outstanding, world class, and his ball carrying too is a real handful for defences. I am sure he will do all he can to put in an even better performance this weekend.
“There is much more to come from Zander too given his age and experience.”
Glasgow full-back Ollie Smith will make his debut after replacing the injured Rory Hutchinson, who suffered a minor injury in Scotland’s 29-6 victory last Saturday. However, the 21-year-old was already earmarked to start the final Test.
“We have high expectations from Ollie because of the way he has been training, and playing this season for Glasgow,” the Scotland head coach said.
“It suggests he will transfer that form into the Test arena.
“He is one of our hardest workers in training, which is a real trait for a full-back, to be constantly on the move in attack and defence. He has a good left boot as well which gives the opposition something to think about when you have a right-footed kicker at 10. And he is a very good attacker.
“I think he will get a lot of ball. The pitches haven’t been full size here so there are more kicks going into the 22 into full-backs’ hands. We see Ollie playing really well on Saturday.”
Townsend is without three injured backs in all. London Irish winger Kyle Rowe suffered a knee injury which will require specialist advice next week after coming off the bench on Saturday, and winger Darcy Graham has been ruled out with delayed concussion.
Rufus McLean takes Graham’s place, while Sione Tuipulotu replaces Sam Johnson at inside centre and scrum-half Ali Price is recalled.
Rory Sutherland and Ewan Ashman come into the front row, while Scott Cummings and Jonny Gray form an all-changed second row, with Edinburgh lock Glen Young in line for a debut off the bench. Flanker Watson will captain Scotland for the first time.
Townsend admitted that the success of the tour would “probably” be defined by the outcome of Saturday’s game but stressed there had already been major benefits.
“There’s a lot of success on how we have seen players develop, players who got that opportunity against Chile, players who have had opportunities in the last two weeks and who are going to have opportunities this weekend, and from how well they have learned and trained during this period,” he said.
“The success off the field, this group coming together, leaders emerging. Hamish has gone from someone who hadn’t been in a leadership group before to vice-captain and now captain.
“But ultimately we are here to win games and finding a way to win is what we are tasked with doing this week and during the 80 minutes.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to comments