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Gregor Townsend feels Luke Crosbie ‘leads by example’ after he named the Edinburgh flanker captain for Scotland A’s match against Chile in Santiago on Saturday.
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The 25-year-old will skipper a team that includes experienced internationals like George Horne, Jamie Bhatti, Scott Cummings and Matt Fagerson as well as uncapped trio Ben Muncaster, Ollie Smith and Matt Currie.
Scarlets’ Javan Sebastian is the only player not with Edinburgh and Glasgow who will feature for the Scots this weekend, with the Gallagher Premiership players unavailable until the following week’s match against Argentina.
“Luke’s a leader by example in the way he trains and the way he plays,” said Scotland head coach Townsend, explaining why he handed the Edinburgh man the captaincy. “He’s very proud to represent Scotland and he’s had captaincy experience at Edinburgh.
“A year ago he was due to be captain in our A game against England which got cancelled. We thought highly of him then and we think very highly of him now. He missed the Six Nations through injury but he’s bounced back well. I thought he was one of the form players towards the end of the season.”
Saturday’s game kicks off a South America tour that will see the senior Scotland team tackling Argentina in a three-Test series next month.
Chile will use the match as preparation for their two-legged World Cup play-off against the United States in July.
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“I expect a high standard, a standard that has got Chile very close to being a World Cup team,” said Townsend. “They have played Russia and Canada and beaten them on their way to the play-off game against USA.
“They have a lot of players involved in the South American professional championship. They’ll be strong in the scrum and the set-piece, very physical and aggressive.”
Scotland arrived in Santiago on Monday and Townsend is pleased with how they have settled.
“We’ve not really ventured out our hotel since we got here,” he said. “Today (Thursday) is a day off. The players were out to golf, led by Zander Fagerson. There will be others going out for coffee.
“Really, the training field and the swimming pool is all we’ve seen. We had a nice visit to the UK ambassador last night (Wednesday) and we heard about the Scottish links to Chile and the Chile team were there as well. It was good to interact with others.
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“It’s a great city, Santiago. I’ve never been here before but you’ve got the Andes in the background. We trained at a school yesterday and thousands of kids came out to watch us train and get autographs off the players, so we’re feeling very welcome and privileged to be back on tour again.”
Townsend welcomed the news that Scottish Rugby Union chief executive Mark Dodson has extended his contract until 2025
“Mark’s been a big supporter of the national team and also the professional teams, and I’ve experienced both of those roles with Glasgow and Scotland,” he said.
“He’s a big believer that if the pro teams and national teams have success, that trickles down to other areas of Scottish rugby. He’s been a big catalyst for that change of mindset over the last 10 years. I’ve got a good relationship with Mark. We don’t always agree but we respect each other’s views. He wants success for all our teams and he’ll be driving that I’m sure for the next few years.”
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments