Gregor Townsend answers lingering question over Scotland star's future

Gregor Townsend expects Japan-bound Jack Dempsey to remain firmly in the mix with Scotland for next year’s World Cup.

There had been some doubt about the influential number eight’s international future after it emerged earlier this year that he was leaving Glasgow to join Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo for next season.

Calendar clashes, particularly around the timing of the Six Nations, have previously prevented players like Richie Gray and George Turner being selected for Scotland while playing in Japan.

But 32-year-old Dempsey – capped 33 times for his adopted nation since switching allegiance from Australia in 2022 – was named in Townsend’s 36-man squad for next month’s Nations Championship matches against Argentina, South Africa and Fiji.

“Japan’s season starts around December, January, so our next two campaigns (summer and autumn) we see Jack being involved with us,” the Scotland head coach said on Tuesday.

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Nations Championship

Argentina

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4 Jul 26

Scotland

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“He’s playing well, he played really well in the Six Nations. He will be able to join his club around September and get some pre-season training before he becomes available for us in November. But, yes, Jack’s very much a part of who we are right now.”

Asked if he envisaged Dempsey still being in the Scotland set-up for the World Cup in Australia in autumn next year, Townsend said: “Yes, 100 per cent.”

Toulouse back Blair Kinghorn and Edinburgh lock Grant Gilchrist are both rested, and Huw Jones, Jamie Ritchie and Turner are out due to injuries, but most of Townsend’s other senior players have been included in a 36-man selection.

Glasgow hookers Seb Stephen, 20, and Gregor Hiddleston, 24, are the two uncapped players called up for next month’s matches against Argentina in Cordoba, South Africa in Pretoria and Fiji at Murrayfield.

Townsend, who often experiments in the summer, has opted for a strong squad partly with an eye on the World Cup and also due to the quality of the opposition.

“It’s a much tougher tour that we’re undertaking this year than ever before, certainly in the time I’ve been a coach,” he said.

“We’re going to different continents, we’re going to different hemispheres, and we’re playing some quality sides. Number five in the world, number one in the world, and a Fiji team that beat us last summer, who are a very strong side, who have had three weeks together and three weeks in the UK.

“We know we’re going to have to play close to our best rugby to win those games and build on what we did in the Six Nations and adapt to the travel.

“It’s a different tour than you normally face as well, of playing three different international teams in three weeks, rather than being based in one area, one country. But it will prep us well for the World Cup.

“While there’s less travel in Australia, it’s week-to-week games against international sides so you have to adapt and learn quickly because you’re into the next match straight away.”