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Why Scotland have 38 at training next week while round one rivals England will make do with 28
Gregor Townsend’s Scotland will prepare for their 2021 Guinness Six Nations opener away to defending champions England with one significant difference compared to their round one hosts – they are assembling a squad of 35 players and three additional training youngsters compared to Eddie Jones being restricted to having just 28 players at his disposal.
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England last week reached an agreement with the RFU to only retain a 28-player squad for the Six Nations to help reduce movement in and out of the team environment. This is in contrast to the 36-strong squads chosen for the conclusion of the delayed 2020 Six Nations and the start of the Autumn Nations Cup.
Jones has also habitually invited young players in to train with the squad, even having Cameron Redpath, the new Scotland squad call-up for 2021’s championship, involved last spring.
Scotland, though, will maintain a different Six Nations approach to England and with very good reason – 15 of the players chosen in Wednesday’s squad of 35 are based outside Scotland and will have to return to their English or French clubs in the midweek of a training week and similarly in a match-week if they don’t make the cut for Townsend’s matchday squad.
Hence the invitation for youngsters Rufus MacLean, Jamie Dobie and Rory Darge to train with the squad that starts work at Oriam next Monday. “We see this as an opportunity for a couple of reasons,” explained Townsend at his squad announcement media briefing.
"I have been trying to sell Scotland to him for the last couple of years"#GuinnessSixNationshttps://t.co/sSBXPnyi1O
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) January 20, 2021
“Firstly, we’re not able to keep everybody in camp as we did in the autumn, so the players that play outside of Scotland could go back after a Tuesday or a Wednesday the week of a camp or a matchweek. That will reduce our squad a fair bit given that we have got 15 non-Scots in our squad.
“So that means having Jamie, Rufus and Rory in our squad, it gives them more of an opportunity to have more training time but also we have an eye open for the future with them. We are very excited about what they can achieve in their careers.
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“Likewise Ewan Ashman (one of four uncapped players in the senior squad), who was in the 20s squad last year and trained with us for a week in autumn. We see the experience they will get will only benefit them when they back and they play with their pro teams.”
With the Six Nations round one match against England going ahead behind closed doors, Townsend added that this lack of atmosphere can help Scotland in their quest to wrest back the Calcutta Cup. “We’re excited about the challenge that faces us,” he said. “We are playing the champions first game up away from home so that is one for us to be highly motivated.
“We’re having to play our best game to win down there but we see it as a big opportunity. There is an opportunity now with no crowds at Twickenham that away games become slightly less challenging than they normally are and we have real faith in the players in the squad and what we believe they are capable of.
“Improving and winning our next game,” added Townsend when asked what his prediction was for Scotland’s 2021 campaign. “That is the focus. We’ll not look any further beyond that.”
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Whereas Townsend sounded excited with the potential of the squad he announced on Wednesday, his upbeat mood was in contrast to goings-on with England where head coach Jones went into self-isolation along with Simon Amor after Matt Proudfoot, another assistant, tested positive for Covid-19.
Jones also had to bring in Ed Robinson, the Jersey assistant coach (and a son of ex-England boss Andy), as skills coach for the championship after it was decided Australia-based Jason Ryles shouldn’t fly to Europe.
Jones has acted as John Mitchell is the last England coach standing this week#ChampRugby #GuinnessSixNationshttps://t.co/DUGhwArcCh
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) January 20, 2021
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 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
3 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 Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 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!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 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.
30 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.
30 Go to comments