Why one Test Lion is touring...and another isn't: Five Scotland takeaways

Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend has named a 36-man squad for the first tranche of Nations Championship Tests next month, which will see the Scots face Argentina in Cordoba, South Africa in Pretoria and Fiji at Murrayfield on successive Saturdays.

There were some high-profile omissions with the likes of Lions duo Blair Kinghorn and Huw Jones, and veteran lock Grant Gilchrist, given an extended summer break, but it was largely a settled, experienced group that Townsend unveiled.

Here are five takeaways after Townsend sat down with the media to discuss his selections.

Russell was ‘really keen’ to tour but Kinghorn needs a rest

Townsend did speak to Finn Russell about whether his kingpin fly-half needed a break after a heavy workload over the last two years.

The 33-year-old maestro played 37 matches last season: 24 for Bath, seven Tests for Scotland and six games, including three Tests, for the British and Irish Lions on their tour of Australia. He played 32 in the previous campaign, which started with a Rugby World Cup, and 34 the season before that, the last of his five in Paris with Racing 92.

This season he has played a comparatively modest 25 to date (18 for Bath, seven for Scotland), with a Prem semi-final – and potentially final – still to come before his domestic duties are complete.

But with hazardous assignments against the teams ranked number five and number one in the world, Townsend was reassured to hear that Russell, who has only played a Test for the Lions – but not Scotland – in South Africa, was “really keen to go on tour”.

“He feels that he gets fit playing games. He’s used to playing long seasons. Even though he did play a lot of rugby last year, and this year, but especially last year, that’s a norm for him. When he played in France, he was over 30 games a season. I had a good chat with him yesterday as well because he’s had this little calf issue, but he’s fully fit again.

“That would have been another reason maybe not to take him. But if the players are in a good position, if they really want to tour, then that’s an influence on us going out there. We would like our best team to get this learning and obviously we need our best performance to win against the teams we’re taking on.”

Kinghorn, by comparison, went from a Top 14 final last June straight into the Lions tour and had a shorter break before resuming another campaign, which may have a few weeks to run with Toulouse favoured to reach another Top 14 final on 27 June, when Scotland will already have left their pre-tour camp in Spain en route to facing the Pumas on 4 July.

“I think there’s a difference between Blair and Finn in that there’s mandatory rest in England, which there’s not in France,” Townsend noted. “Blair was playing, I think, after one week of pre-season last year.

“We know that Finn had 10 weeks off after the Lions tour, so he gets five weeks’ rest and five weeks’ pre-season. He will get that time. It’s not guaranteed that Blair would get that and didn’t get that last year.

“Finn’s not played the last couple of weeks. That was a big part of it too. We know that he’ll get a good rest, recovery and build up to next pre-season with Bath.”

Japan move could extend Dempsey’s Scotland career – and he may even play in Six Nations

The continued involvement of key number eight Jack Dempsey in Scotland’s longer-term plans was in question after the 32-year-old opted to leave Glasgow after a productive five years and take up a lucrative contract with Japanese side Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo.

The Japan Rugby League One season runs from December to June and while there is no guarantee Dempsey will be released during the Six Nations period, he is free to play in the first two tranches of the Nations Championship next month and in November, before potentially rejoining the Scotland set-up next summer in the build-up to RWC27.

“We’ll look at that,” Townsend said about the prospects of Dempsey featuring in the Six Nations. “We understand the Japan season goes on at the same time, but we’ll just see. It might be that we want to look at someone else in that period anyway. Just now, for this tournament and November, Jack will be available.

“We had discussions when he had the decision around staying in Glasgow or going to Japan. It was a massive decision for him. He was torn, because of what Glasgow have given him and the opportunities he’s had and the experience he’s had, and obviously, playing Test rugby on the back of that. But going to Japan won’t rule him out for Test matches.”

With the shorter, less demanding season in Japan, the move could even extend the Test career of the former Wallaby, who has won 33 caps since qualifying for Scotland in the autumn of 2022.

“You could definitely see it that way,” Townsend added. “I think that’s how the Springboks players see it. You’ve got Malcolm Marx, Pieter-Steph du Toit, Faf de Klerk, Damian de Allende, who are top-quality internationals, who get an opportunity to not play as demanding rugby in terms of the length of the season that happens in France and elsewhere compared to Japan. They come out and they’re ready for a few months of Test rugby straight away. So that will hopefully work out well for Jack.”

Van der Merwe can use Baa-Baas bonus to play himself back into Test mix

Giant wing Duhan van der Merwe seemed unsure whether he would be selected for Scotland’s Nations Championship squad after an injury-affected season which saw him lose his first-choice Test status amid a nagging ankle injury and loss of form.

With Edinburgh missing out on the URC play-offs and their season over on 15 May, Van der Merwe has chance to further rebuild some confidence after being selected for the Barbarians squad for the invitational team’s matches against South Africa on 20 June and Wales a week later before joining the Scotland party in Argentina.

Townsend believes Van der Merwe, who has 35 tries in 53 Tests for Scotland, has sufficiently dispelled doubts about his fitness in recent weeks to merit consideration to face the Pumas and Springboks.

“You would have seen this in the last two games for Edinburgh,” he said. “He did need some time just to get back to being confident in training again. He had an ankle issue. He spent some time working on that, working with a specialist.

“What he said to us is he’s getting not just joy but real confidence in how he’s training – beating players in training and moving freely. He had those two games for Edinburgh; he played well. He’s looked good in training over the last couple of weeks.

“He’s also getting an opportunity with the Baa-Baas and he knows what an opportunity that is – not just to play for the Baa-Baas but to play the Springboks two weeks before we play Argentina. If he goes well there and goes well in training, then he’s definitely going to be in the mix for our Test matches.”

Latest ‘kilted Kiwis’ will have to ‘earn the right’ to play for Scotland

Townsend could have two more southern hemisphere recruits on his depth-charts in the run-up to the 2027 Rugby World Cup after Edinburgh signed the Scottish-qualified duo of Crusaders scrum-half Louis Chapman and Hurricanes centre Riley Higgins for next season.

But the head coach insisted there is no guarantee the duo will just walk into the Scotland squad, with scrum-halves Ben White, George Horne and Jamie Dobie all well established and midfield also an area of depth, even with Huw Jones left at home to recuperate from a niggling foot issue and Cam Redpath missing out again.

“They’re both quality players who have been involved in Super Rugby this year and previous seasons,” Townsend noted of Chapman and Higgins. “The knowledge that they’re coming over to Edinburgh is great. They’re two guys who are qualified to play for Scotland, but they’ve got to earn the right to get in the squad.

“The three nines in our squad all played at a high level throughout the Six Nations and you’ve also got guys like Ali Price who have played really well this year, who just missed out in selection.

“It’s the same in the centre. We’ve got some quality depth there – players that missed out who could easily step in and play well for us. It’ll be interesting to see how Louis and Riley go, but we know those are players at a high level who will now be available for us next year.

“Let’s hope Riley has a really good run once he gets over this injury because there’s definitely a player of real talent and potential there.”

Increasing tight-head depth means no rush to promote Blyth-Lafferty from U20s

Edinburgh’s emerging tighthead prop Ollie Blyth-Lafferty said last month that “I’d like to think I’m ready” when the prospect of earning a first senior call-up for the forthcoming Tests was put to him.

The 20-year-old has enjoyed a breakthrough season in which he has played 15 matches for the capital side, including 11 starts, but Townsend believes his ongoing development will be better served by heading to the U20s Junior World Championships in Georgia, rather than Argentina and South Africa.

“He was in the discussions,” the head coach said. “We’ve got to realise that the U20s World Cup is a big test too and he’s going to get really good learning there. He’s had a great season. To go from not playing any minutes to starting against Toulon and then getting a lot of game time, he’s learning and growing outside the scrum too. I think his ball carrying, his defence, his movement – as he’s getting more used to his body and getting used to professional rugby – have all come on really strong.

“We’ve trained against the U20s this week, we trained against them during the Six Nations and there’s some players of real potential in that squad, Oli being one of them.”

Townsend believes that with D’arcy Rae – who like Van der Merwe, will get a chance to build his fitness with the Barbarians – Northampton’s Elliott Millar-Mills and Leicester’s Will Hurd backing up first-choice Zander Fagerson, Scotland’s tighthead stocks are in better health than for some time.

“Ollie is just outside that group but it has been a really encouraging development, our depth at tight-head, and the ability for us to start guys like D’arcy and have Zander come off the bench. Obviously Zander has been an outstanding player for us but to have more depth there is something that we’ve seen happening this year.”