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Scotland make five changes to their team to face Samoa
Gregor Townsend has made five changes to the starting Scotland side to face Samoa in Monday’s World Cup match at Kobe.
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Scotland have won nine of the 11 Tests between the two sides however the last two meetings underlined the Islanders’ potency in attack, scoring 33 and 38 points in defeat at World Cup 2015 and in a 2017 autumn Test.
This threat was evident again in Samoa’s bonus-point win over Russia in their opening Pool A match (34-9), with Scotland looking to the Test as a chance to bounce back from their opening round defeat to Ireland (27-3) and get their pool campaign on track.
Townsend, said: “Samoa are a team capable of scoring points from anywhere on the field. They play an ambitious brand of rugby and their team is full of skilful and powerful players.
“We had worked hard in our build-up to this tournament to deliver our best rugby but we were well below this level in our opening game against Ireland. We’ll need to be much better on Monday night against such a dangerous opponent.
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“It’s been a long week building towards a game where we intend to put a lot of things right. The players have responded well in training, know what is required of them and are hungry to deliver the kind of performance that keeps us in the world cup.
“The reality is we now have to win our next three games to make it out of our pool, so the knockout stages for us begin this Monday night. I firmly believe this group are ready to take on that challenge.”
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Two of Scotland’s starting changes come in the backline where Edinburgh wing Darcy Graham and Gloucester centre Chris Harris – try scorers against Georgia and France in respective summer Tests – start in place of Tommy Seymour and Duncan Taylor, the latter moving to the bench.
TEAM ANNOUNCEMENT
Here is your Scotland team to face Samoa in their second #RWC2019 Test in Kobe!
Kick-off 7.15pm local time, 11.15am BST – Live on ITV/STV. #AsOne pic.twitter.com/Qki44uU74j
— Scottish Rugby (@Scotlandteam) September 28, 2019
Graham will combine with fellow Hawick man Stuart Hogg (full-back) and Saracens wing Sean Maitland in the back three, with Glasgow Warriors centre Sam Johnson returning to partner Harris in midfield.
Half-backs Greig Laidlaw (Clermont) and Finn Russell (Racing 92) start together for the 35th time, equalling the national team record of legendary pairing Roy Laidlaw [Greig’s uncle] and John Rutherford.
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A new back-row trio makes up the three remaining changes in the pack. Fit-again Jamie Ritchie starts in place of the injured Hamish Watson (knee), with Watson’s wider squad replacement Magnus Bradbury operating on the blindside, and Scarlets Blade Thomson at No8.
John Barclay insists accusations that Scotland's players don't care are wide of the mark after they were spotted having fun in Japanhttps://t.co/62SBHNvdDY
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 27, 2019
The forwards are completed by a returning tight five of loosehead prop Allan Dell (London Irish), hooker and captain Stuart McInally and tighthead prop Willem Nel (both Edinburgh), with Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh) and Jonny Gray (Glasgow Warriors) back at lock.
Scotland (v Samoa, Monday)
15. Stuart Hogg VICE CAPTAIN (Exeter Chiefs) – 70 caps
14. Darcy Graham (Edinburgh) – 8 caps
13. Chris Harris (Gloucester) – 11 caps
12. Sam Johnson (Glasgow Warriors) – 7 caps
11. Sean Maitland (Saracens) – 43 caps
10. Finn Russell (Racing 92) – 47 caps
9. Greig Laidlaw VICE CAPTAIN (Clermont Auvergne) – 74 caps
1. Allan Dell (London Irish) – 26 caps
2. Stuart McInally CAPTAIN (Edinburgh) – 30 caps
3. Willem Nel (Edinburgh) – 32 caps
4. Grant Gilchrist (Edinburgh) – 37 caps
5. Jonny Gray (Glasgow Warriors) – 53 caps
6. Magnus Bradbury (Edinburgh) – 8 caps
7. Jamie Ritchie (Edinburgh) – 12 caps
8. Blade Thomson (Scarlets) – 3 caps
Substitutes:
16. Fraser Brown (Glasgow Warriors) – 43 caps
17. Gordon Reid (Ayrshire Bulls) – 38 caps
18. Zander Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors) – 22 caps
19. Scott Cummings (Glasgow Warriors) – 5 caps
20. Ryan Wilson (Glasgow Warriors) – 46 caps
21. George Horne (Glasgow Warriors) – 7 caps
22. Adam Hastings (Glasgow Warriors) – 14 caps
23. Duncan Taylor (Saracens) – 24 caps
WATCH: The Rugby Pod reflect on a dire performance by Scotland at the World Cup
Comments on RugbyPass
After their 5/0 start, I had the Crusaders to finish Top 4 only…they lost the plot in Perth but will reload and back themselves vs 4th placed Rebels…
3 Go to commentsBoth nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
2 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
3 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
31 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
3 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
3 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
1 Go to comments