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No Hogg or Russell as Scotland name their 40-man summer tour squad
Scotland boss Gregor Townsend has included six uncapped players in a Grant Gilchrist-captained 40-man squad for the summer tour to South America following the omission of regular skipper Stuart Hogg and out-half Finn Russell. Another 2021 Lions pick, midfielder Chris Harris, has also been excluded.
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Hogg’s club season at Exeter ended with last Saturday’s win over Harlequins, Russell is currently battling injury with Racing 92 contesting the Top 14 playoffs while Harris played his final game of the Gloucester campaign in their win over Saracens.
While the exclusion of the trio will be attributed to them having toured until last August with the Lions, numerous others who made that trip last year are now set to travel with Scotland. It will also place a focus on the background situation prevailing in Scotland, who took disciplinary action against a half dozen players during the recent Guinness Six Nations.
Long-serving Scotland skipper Hogg finished that tournament in Dublin on March 19 by addressing the previous weekend’s breach of team protocol which resulted in the full-back and five other players being disciplined for visiting a bar in Edinburgh without the permission of team management.
Russell, Ali Price, Darcy Graham, Sam Johnson, Sione Tuipulotu and Hogg all headed out on the town after they had arrived back in the Scottish capital following the round four Six Nations win over Italy. Whereas Hogg and Russell now miss out on the Scotland tour, the other four players involved in that incident will travel.
Scotland out-half Russell has spoken on @TheRugbyPod about his potential tour availability and given his thoughts on a recent suggestion by Eben Etzebeth.#Scotland https://t.co/VQ7WxrbW1w
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) May 11, 2022
Scotland A take on Chile in Santiago on June 25 before Scotland play a three-Test series against Argentina on successive Saturdays from July 2 where they will be captained by Edinburgh’s Gilchrist for the first time since the 2018 summer tour fixture against Canada in Edmonton. Edinburgh’s Ben Muncaster, Glen Young, Matt Currie, along with London Irish’s Kyle Rowe and Glasgow Warriors’ duo Murphy Walker and Ollie Smith, are the uncapped players in the 40-strong group.
The squad also sees Glasgow forwards Scott Cummings, Rory Darge and Matt Fagerson make their return following spells of injury along with Worcester Warriors’ prop Rory Sutherland, fellow front-rower Jamie Bhatti and Exeter lock Jonny Gray who also missed the majority of the Six Nations.
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Edinburgh’s Hamish Watson has been selected and is on the cusp of reaching 50 caps for his country, just one appearance away from the milestone. Fellow British and Irish Lions players Price, Duhan van der Merwe and Zander Fagerson are also included.
Scotland 2022 summer tour squad
Forwards (22)
Ewan Ashman (Sale Sharks) – 2 caps
Jamie Bhatti (Glasgow Warriors) – 22 caps
Magnus Bradbury (Edinburgh Rugby) – 18 caps
Dave Cherry (Edinburgh Rugby) – 5 caps
Andy Christie (Saracens) – 1 cap
Luke Crosbie (Edinburgh Rugby) – 1 cap
Scott Cummings (Glasgow Warriors) – 21 caps
Rory Darge (Glasgow Warriors) – 4 caps
Matt Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors) – 21 caps
Zander Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors) – 47 caps
Grant Gilchrist (Captain) (Edinburgh Rugby) – 53 caps
Jonny Gray (Exeter Chiefs) – 67 caps
Jamie Hodgson (Edinburgh Rugby) – 5 caps
Ben Muncaster (Edinburgh Rugby) – uncapped
Pierre Schoeman (Edinburgh Rugby) – 9 caps
Javan Sebastian (Scarlets) – 1 cap
Sam Skinner (Exeter Chiefs) – 20 caps
Rory Sutherland (Worcester Warriors) – 18 caps
George Turner (Glasgow Warriors) – 25 caps
Murphy Walker (Glasgow Warriors) – uncapped
Hamish Watson (Edinburgh Rugby) – 49 caps
Glen Young (Edinburgh Rugby) – uncapped
Backs (18)
Mark Bennett (Edinburgh Rugby) – 24 caps
Matt Currie (Edinburgh Rugby) – uncapped
Darcy Graham (Edinburgh Rugby) – 27 caps
Adam Hastings (Gloucester Rugby) – 26 caps
George Horne (Glasgow Warriors) – 17 caps
Damian Hoyland (Edinburgh Rugby) – 4 caps
Rory Hutchinson (Northampton Saints) – 5 caps
Sam Johnson (Glasgow Warriors) – 24 caps
Huw Jones (Harlequins) – 31 caps
Blair Kinghorn (Edinburgh Rugby) – 31 caps
Rufus McLean (Glasgow Warriors) – 2 caps
Ali Price (Glasgow Warriors) – 51 caps
Kyle Rowe (London Irish) – uncapped
Ollie Smith (Glasgow Warriors) – uncapped
Ross Thompson (Glasgow Warriors) – 1 cap
Sione Tuipulotu (Glasgow Warriors) – 5 caps
Duhan van der Merwe (Worcester Warriors) – 16 caps
Ben White (London Irish) – 4 caps
Summer Tour 2022 fixtures
Chile v Scotland A | Saturday 25 June 2022, kick-off 9pm (UK time) – Estadio Santa Laura Universidad SEK, Santiago, live on Premier Sports
Argentina v Scotland | Saturday 2 July 2022, kick-off 8.10pm (UK time) – Estadio 23 de Agosto, Jujuy, live on Sky Sports
Argentina v Scotland | Saturday 9 July 2022, kick-off 8.10pm (UK time) – Estadio Padre Ernesto Martearena, Salta, live on Sky Sports
Argentina v Scotland | Saturday 16 July 2022, kick-off 8.10pm (UK time) – The Estadio Único Madre de Ciudades, Santiago Del Estero, live on Sky Sports
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Comments on RugbyPass
He is right , the Crusaders will be a threat. Scott Barrett, ( particularly), Fergus Burke , Codie Taylor, ( from sabbatical) etc due back soon for the Crusaders. There are others like Zach Gallagher too. People can right the Crusaders off, Top 8 , here we come !!
1 Go to commentsWe will always struggle for money to match the other sides but the least the WRU can do is invest properly in Welsh rugby. Too much has been squandered on vanity projects like the hotel and roof walk amongst others which will never see a massive return. Hanging the 4 pro sides out to dry over the last decade is now coming back to bite the WRU financially as well as on the pitch. You reap what you sow.
1 Go to commentsWhat do you get if you cross a doctor with a fish? A plastic sturgeon
14 Go to commentsWhat happened to feleti Kaitu’u? Hasnt played in a while right?
1 Go to commentsGregor I just can’t agree with you. You are trying to find something that just isn’t there. Jordie Barrett has signed until 2028. By the end of that he would have spent probably 11-12 years on Super Rugby and you say he can’t possibly have one season playing somewhere else. It is absurd. What about this scenario, the NZR play hard ball and he decides to leave and play overseas. How would that affect the competition. There seems to be an agenda by certain journalists to push certain agendas and don’t like it when it’s not to their liking. I fully support the NZR on this. Gregor needs to get a life.
2 Go to commentsHope he stays as believe he can do a great job.
1 Go to commentsMake what step up? Manie has a World Cup winner’s medal around his neck and changed the way the Springboks can play. He doesn’t have anything to prove to anyone. The win record of the Boks with him in the team is tremendous. Sacha can be wonderful and I hope he has a very succesful Bok career, but comparing him to Manie in terms of the next Bok flyhalf is very strange. Manie is the incumbent (not the next) and doing pretty incredibly.
1 Go to comments00 😍 U
1 Go to commentsSabbaticals have helped keep NZ’s very best talent in the country on long term deals - this fact has been left out of this article. Much like the articles calling to allow overseas players to be selected, yet can only name one player currently not signed to NZR who would be selected for the ABs. And in the entire history of NZ players leaving to play overseas, literally only 4 or 5 have left in their prime as current ABs. (Piatau, Evans, Hayman, Mo’unga,?) Yes Carter got an injury while playing in France 16 years ago, but he also got a tournament ending injury at the 2011 World Cup while taking mid-week practice kicks at goal. Maybe Jordie gets a season-ending injury while playing in Ireland, maybe he gets one next week against the Brumbies. NZR have many shortcomings, but keeping the very best players in the country and/or available for ABs selection is not one of them. Likewise for workload management - players missing 2 games out of 14 is hardly a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Again let’s use some facts - did it stop the Crusaders winning SR so many times consecutively when during any given week they would be missing 2 of their best players? The whole idea of the sabbatical is to reward your best players who are willing to sign very long term deals with some time to do whatever they want. They are not handed out willy-nilly, and at nowhere near the levels that would somehow devalue Super Rugby. In this particular example JB is locked in with NZR for what will probably (hopefully) be the best years of his career, hard to imagine him not sticking around for a couple more after for a Lions tour and one more world cup. He has the potential to become the most capped AB of all time. A much better outcome than him leaving NZ for a minimum of 3 years at the age of 27, unlikely to ever play for the ABs again, which would be the likely alternative.
2 Go to commentsJake White talks more sense than anything I've read in the last 5 years. Hope someone's listening.
9 Go to commentsThe Springboks tried going down the road of only picking home-based players and it was an unmitigated disaster in 2016 and 2017. Picking overseas-based players has been one of the main reason the Boks have done so well since 2018, not only because of the quality Rassie could call on, but because of the knowledge and experience those players brought into camp from England, France and Japan. With some of the big names playing abroad it also gave younger players in SA the chance to break through at franchise level. Would we have seen the emergence of a Ruan Nortje if RG and Lood were still at the Bulls? Not so sure. I understand why Jake would want to block players leaving since his job depends on good results but it’s an approach that would take Bok rugby back to the bad old days and no South African wants to see that.
9 Go to commentsExeter were thumped by 38 points. And they only had to hop on a train.
39 Go to commentsI am De Groot.
1 Go to commentsHad hoped you might write an article on this game, Nick. It’s a good one. Things have not gone as smoothly for ROG since beating Leinster last year at the Aviva in the CC final. LAR had the Top 14 Final won till Raymond Rhule missed a simple tackle on the excellent Ntamack, and Toulouse reaped the rewards of just staying in the fight till the death. Then the disruption of the RWC this season. LAR have not handled that well, but they were not alone, and we saw Pau heading the Top 14 table at one stage early season. I would think one of the reasons for the poor showing would have to be that the younger players coming through, and the more mature amongst the group outside the top 25/30, are not as strong as would be hoped for. I note that Romain Sazy retired at the end of last season. He had been with LAR since 2010, and was thus one of their foundation players when they were promoted to Top 14. Records show he ended up with 336 games played with LAR. That is some experience, some rock in the team. He has been replaced for the most part by Ultan Dillane. At 30, Dillane is not young, but given the chances, he may be a fair enough replacement for Sazy. But that won’be for more than a few years. I honestly know little of the pathways into the LAR setup from within France. I did read somewhere a couple of years ago that on the way up to Top 14, the club very successfully picked up players from the academies of other French teams who were not offered places by those teams. These guys were often great signings…can’t find the article right now, so can’t name any….but the Tadgh Beirne type players. So all in all, it will be interesting to see where the replacements for all the older players come from. Only Lleyd’s and Rhule from SA currently, both backs. So maybe a few SA forwards ?? By contrast, Leinster have a pretty clear line of good players coming through in the majority of positions. Props maybe a weak spot ? And they are very fleet footed and shrewd in appointing very good coaches. Or maybe it is also true that very good coaches do very well in the Leinster setup. So, Nick, I would fully concurr that “On the evidence of Saturday’s semi-final between the two clubs, the rebuild in the Bay of Biscay is going to take longer than it is on the east coast of Ireland”
11 Go to commentsWhat was the excuse for the other knockout blowouts then? Does the result not prove the Saints were just so much better? Wise call to put your eggs in one basket when you’ve got 2 comps simultaneously finishing.
39 Go to commentsReally hope Kuruvoli and his partner rock the Canes.
1 Go to commentsI wonder what impact Samson has had on their attack, as the team seems less prone to trundle it up the middle, take the tackle and then trundle it up again. I lost faith in the coach last year as the Rebelss looked like a 2nd/3rd rate South African team. I also disliked Gordon standing back, often ignored as the forward battle went on and on. Maybe its our Aussie way of not getting off our A***’s until the enemy is at the gate.
86 Go to commentsThanks for the write up. Great to see the Rebs winning, I am a little interested in how they will go against the remaining kiwi teams, I think they’ve only played Hurricanes and Highlanders but how great to see these players performing!! I also see Parling has a job beyond June 30! A good move by RA? Also how do you fix the Rebels previously scratchy defence?
86 Go to commentsbe smart - go black
14 Go to commentsNext week the Crusaders hopefully have Scott Barrett back. Will be great to have the captain back. Hopefully he will be the All Black captain as well.
12 Go to comments