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Five talking points: Bombshell call as Scotland target historic All Blacks victory
By Bryn Palmer
If the headline selection in Scotland’s team to face New Zealand smacked you square between the eyes – dropping joint-record try-scorer Duhan van der Merwe certainly fell into the ‘bombshell’ category, even if the reasons are sound – there were plenty of other talking points in the 23 charged with the task of becoming the first Scottish side to beat the All Blacks.
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Head coach Gregor Townsend sat down with the media to discuss, among other things, why Kyle Steyn and Rory Hutchinson have been handed starts in the backline, why he’s excited about his replacement strategy, prop D’arcy Rae’s late career renaissance … and why he’s been sledging with Wallace Sititi.
No Huwipulotu, but Sione and Hutch anyone?
With Lions centre Huw Jones ruled out until the new year with an ankle issue and another Test Lion, Sione Tuipulotu, returning as captain, Townsend had three options to fill the No.13 jersey vacated by Jones.
The safe option given their connection at club level would have been one of Tuipulotu’s Glasgow team-mates, Stafford McDowall or Ollie Smith, who were both excellent in the 85-0 rout of the USA. But it is Northampton’s Rory Hutchinson who has been handed the biggest chance of his stop-start Test career.
The 29-year-old has needed the patience of a Saint, appropriately, having won only nine caps since his debut in 2019, a meagre return for a player of his quality. But after impressing as a late call-up to Scotland’s summer tour squad – he was on holiday when he got the call, but didn’t hesitate: ‘I can’t wait, I want to be there,’ he told Townsend – his reward for superb early-season form with Northampton is just a sixth Test start.
“Whether he would have been selected if Huw [Jones] was here, who knows, Huw would have had to prove his form,” Townsend said. “As we’ve seen with Duhan, nobody’s guaranteed a selection even if you’ve been on the Lions tour.
“There are areas of Rory’s game we were working with him to bring out where he’s really kicked on. His work-rate off the ball has improved a lot. On the ball, I think he’s one of the best players around, in the northern or southern hemisphere, so it’s how he gets on the ball more.
“His defence has improved the last two or three years a fair amount, just like Huw’s, but this year, he’s gone to another level. He’s been winning the ball back – against Gloucester, I think it was three jackals in the first 20 minutes, plus a try-saving tackle – and in attack, he’s up there with the best. So that’s Test match rugby he’s been delivering for his club. Now he’s got the opportunity to bring that out this weekend.”
Steyn’s mastery of the skies key in rugby’s new battleground
New Zealand lost two matches in this year’s Rugby Championship and in both, their aerial prowess – or lack of at times – was exposed by first Argentina then South Africa. Given the change to allow attacking kick-chasers uninhibited access to high balls, with ‘blocking’ outlawed, it is an area where proven masters of the skies are an increasingly valuable asset in a team’s attacking armoury.
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Kyle Steyn has many strengths, and few weaknesses – it is difficult to find an area where he doesn’t excel, albeit in a more under-stated fashion than Van der Merwe – but his ability to win ball back in the air is likely to be a key weapon in Scotland’s attempts to destabilise the All Blacks on Saturday.
“The game has gone aerial over the last six months because of the law change,” Townsend noted. “Our back three are working very hard and we’ve improved a lot during the Six Nations and the summer tour on that. That’s the challenge for the three of them and I’ll include [fly-half] Finn [Russell] in that too because he’s in the back-field a lot. That’s a game within a game that we’ve got to win.
“We’ve got to come down with winning more than the opposition because it gives you turnover ball to play off, the defence is disrupted, there’s a psychological advantage too. We’ve seen New Zealand in games where they’ve done well and won that area, and the games they haven’t won, that’s been a key area the opposition have done better.
“A year ago, if you’d said a full-back is only winning one out of every two kicks that go up, you’d go, ‘Oh, he’s not so good with the high ball’. That number’s down to about 20%. Four out of the five balls that go up are won by the attacking team now.
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“They have so much of an advantage, so it’s about making sure that we use it as a weapon and we get that ball back, but also any ball that’s won back by the opposition, we’re picking up the loose ball, we’re negating their attacking threat and we’re trying to get that one out of five to be two or three out of five. It’s changed since the days where full-backs or wingers are winning all the kicks.”
Scotland muscling up on the bench
Their last meeting with New Zealand in 2022 saw Scotland leading 23-14 heading into the final quarter, having trailed 14-0 early on, but – hindered by a yellow card for Jack Dempsey – they couldn’t sustain their first hour’s sterling work as the All Blacks finished the stronger to prevail 31-23, aided by replacements of the quality of Codie Taylor, Fletcher Newell, Shannon Frizell, TJ Perenara and Rieko Ioane.
“They have explosive players and their bench was definitely a difference in the game,” Townsend recalled. “These guys added something and we have to match that or better that. It’s likely to be our bench guys doing that [this time] rather than guys going 80 minutes. We’ve got to trust our 23, I think we’ve got a really good bench this week.
“There’s speed, there’s versatility, there’s experience with Rory Darge, Rory Sutherland, George Turner. So we just have to get that timing right, if it’s on for the last quarter, last 10 minutes, we’ve got to make sure we bring that same energy.”
As well as Darge, returning from six weeks out with a knee injury, the dynamic Josh Bayliss provides further back-row cover as Scotland look to counter the speed of New Zealand’s trio of Ardie Savea, Wallace Sititi and Peter Lakai, with Du’Plessis Kirifi also poised to spring from the bench.
Townsend has also opted for Edinburgh lock Marshall Sykes, at 6ft 7in (2.00m) and 19 stone (121kg), Scotland’s most physically imposing tight-five forward. For all the deft touches he has added to his game, it is his physical presence – clearing rucks, defending mauls, making big tackles – that has earned his place in the 23.
“Absolutely. Marshall has improved so much in the last two years. The things he was doing really well – hitting the most contacts in a game, his tackling was excellent – and maybe he wasn’t a lineout leader or making great breaks, but he’s now added that to his game and is carrying much more.
“He’s very good. He had a couple of really good tip-passes last weekend. He’s a really good maul defender, and it’s going to be the physicality, the effort and the power he brings [that will be important]. He knows his strengths and we know the impact he can bring in the game.”
With no Zander, it’s time for Rae to shine
The medical bulletins have come thick and fast in recent weeks on Zander Fagerson, arguably Scotland’s most important player, with regular updates sought on the progress of his comeback from seven months out from calf and knee injuries.
He appeared to be tracking well to play some part against New Zealand before feeling some slight pain in his knee after a training session this week, when it was decided that even for a player of the Glasgow tighthead’s class, facing the All Blacks after such a lengthy period of inactivity was “a game too early” and “quite a big ask”.
Fagerson may feature against Argentina next week, or possibly more likely against Tonga in Scotland’s final autumn Test, but with the prop titan unavailable this week, it is D’arcy Rae entrusted with the No.3 jersey.
The Edinburgh tighthead, 30, has been around the block in a nomadic career, but having won his second cap last November, five years after his first in 2019, he started his first Test last week against the USA. His second, suffice to say, will be a sterner challenge.
A couple of productive seasons with Bath aside, Rae has largely been a bit-part performer, with most of his outings off the bench, but 13 starts in 22 games last season, and three more in Edinburgh’s first four matches this season, have brought a career renaissance which sees Rae join two club-mates in the front row for Scotland.
“Now he’s become a regular starter, getting big minutes, he’s just grown within that,” Townsend said. “I think D’arcy is someone who adapts really well to what you want from him. Whether it’s a different attack shape or defence system, he goes forward.
“The scrum has gone well for him this year, and that cohesion with [hooker] Ewan [Ashman] and [loosehead] Pierre [Schoeman], I think will really help him in this game. I think props take time to get through into their peak years, but I think it’s more about opportunity – he’s had this run of games last season, this season, and he can just continue that this weekend.”
No sledging this time but Sititi can expect a warm reception
Townsend was a team-mate of Wallace Sititi’s father Semo in the latter half of his career at the long-defunct Border Reivers. When Semo’s wife was pregnant with Wallace in 2002, his father was prevented from attending the birth by the Reivers’ Kiwi coach Tony Gilbert, who decided he couldn’t do without the back-rower for a vital game.
“I remember at the time Semo wanted to go back to Samoa for the birth of Wallace and Tony Gilbert didn’t allow him to do that,” Townsend recalled. “I remember as a playing group we were a bit upset that he wasn’t allowed to go back.
“He was named after William Wallace because at the start of every pre-season, Tony Gilbert took us to the Wallace statue, not far from St Boswell’s [in the Borders] and talked about someone that is historic in Scotland and a way for us to start the season as a group. Obviously it must have resonated with Semo and his family and they said, ‘OK, we’re going to call our son Wallace’.”
Sititi’s daughter attended St Peter’s Primary School, the same as Townsend in his youth, and he recalls a winter experience with the Sititi family. “I remember going sledging with Wallace and his sister at St Boswell’s Golf Club and they were wrapped up so warm they could hardly move. I just remember saying to Semo, ‘they’ll get warmer once they get down the hill!’
“They were a big part of the community and it’s been great to see Wallace come through. There’ll be only one Wallace Sititi in the world! I’m looking forward to chatting with him, although I don’t think he’ll remember the sledging.”
Sititr Jr, now 23 and one of New Zealand’s most exciting finds of recent years, presents a clear and present danger to Scotland’s hopes of that elusive first win over the All Blacks. “He’s now a big pain in the backside for us as he’s turned into one of their better players,” Townsend grinned. “He made a big impact at the weekend [against Ireland] and he’s really explosive. He’ll be a handful.”
