'Our game plan was set for South Africa': Fully-fit Scotland squad ready to go
Gregor Townsend revealed his relief that a gruelling summer warm-up campaign has not come at a cost as he touched down in France with a fully-fit Scotland squad ready to kick-off the World Cup.
The Scots landed in Nice on Sunday evening before heading to their training base in the hills near Valbonne, just north of Cannes, to step up preparations for their opening game against South Africa in Marseille next Sunday.
Concern had surrounded free-scoring wing Darcy Graham after he missed the final warm-up match against Georgia last weekend with a thigh strain, while full-back Blair Kinghorn had also been nursing a minor issue but Townsend expects the Edinburgh pair to train fully this week.
“It’s good that we’ve got on the plane together with no injuries, which is amazing when you think back a few weeks ago when we had a squad of 41 and were reducing it to 33,” said head coach Townsend, speaking to the PA news agency upon arrival at Nice Airport.
“We thought the four games (against Italy, France home and away, and Georgia), all tough Test matches, would result in injuries to our group, which hasn’t been the case.
“I’m really pleased that those players that played in those games have been able to make it to this stage. As we currently view things, they will all be good for Sunday.
“We don’t train until Tuesday but we believe Darcy will be training fully on Tuesday and available for selection. He trained with the medics on Thursday.
“Blair’s recovered and we also expect him to train fully on Tuesday. From where I’m standing, we’ll have the full squad to pick from.”
Barring any fresh injuries in the coming days, Townsend has all but decided his starting XV to face the Springboks.
“I think I know what the XV is,” he said. “I’m just waiting until that session on Tuesday to see everybody training.
“The 23 is not decided. We’ll have a couple of meetings as coaches about what we feel is right. We’ve got individual decisions to make and then more a concept of whether it’s a 5/3 or a 6/2 bench we go for.”
Scotland are in a pool with the two highest-ranked teams in the world in the shape of Ireland and South Africa but Townsend – without stating a specific target for the tournament – believes his team are equipped to meet his “very high expectations” in France.
“My hopes are obviously very high and my expectations of this team are very high because I know they can reach them,” he said. “We are focused on getting our best performance out against South Africa.
“We’ve been talking about that for weeks and months. It’s one reason why we went strong in three of our four (warm-up) games.
“A lot of the players that will be involved at the weekend have played together and trained together and built up a cohesion.
“A lot of what we’re doing in terms of our game plan was set for South Africa, so it’s a great opportunity to see how they go.
“We know there’s some real tests ahead of us in the next few weeks but this team is ready to go.”
Comments on RugbyPass
“While Sotutu should start at No.8 for the All Blacks against England, but it’s only in that arena that he can prove just how good he really is.” And that my friends is where simply hasnt shone despite multiple opportunities. Even in this performance you can see what did him in in the test arena..he almost always still runs at the opposition almost ramrod upright making him easier to stop than it should be.
1 Go to commentsShould have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
3 Go to commentsGreat work Owen Franks. A great of this team, scoring his first try for the Crusaders since 2010.He was beaming, justifiably. A fine win, he and the rest did the job up front.
1 Go to commentsDanny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
3 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
3 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
4 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
38 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
4 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
2 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to comments