Gregor Townsend explains reshuffled Scotland pick to take on Italy

Gregor Townsend has challenged his Scotland fringe men to use this weekend’s warm-up match against Italy to play their way into the Rugby 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 No10 Ben Healy handed his first start. Luke Crosbie and Murphy Walker are also 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 admitted that performances this weekend could sway his decision over certain positions.

He said: “100 per cent. We have not got a big squad. It’s 41 so the players know that in each positional group, there is 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 will 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 are 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 have already had initial chats with coaches and they are dreading the moment when we have to say it’s you who has made it but you have just missed out,” he said. “It will be tight on two, three, four, five selections, but we are going to have to come to that call.

“For those who will miss out, they have 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 No15 jersey vacated by the national team’s record try-scorer.

“It was a surprise to me because he had trained with us at the beginning of the camp,” said Townsend, speaking for the first time since Hogg’s retirement a fortnight ago. “I have got to credit what he has 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.”