Was Gregor Townsend wrong to name Sione Tuipulotu captain?
What about the absence of hooker Johnny Matthews?
Our panel can’t agree, but there is one thing they are sure of: Scotland need at least three wins out of four this autumn.
Would you have chosen Sione Tuipulotu instead of Finn Russell for the captaincy?
Calum Crowe: The real issue here is not the identity of any person chosen as captain. More generally, the most worrying aspect of this is that Townsend keeps changing captains.
Finn Russell and Rory Darge led the team during the Six Nations earlier this year. At last year’s World Cup, it was Jamie Ritchie. Before that, it was Stuart Hogg. Before him, Greig Laidlaw and Stuart McInally.
Sione Tuipulotu is the latest man to be named Scotland captain under Gregor Townsend
Our experts believe losing the bracelet could be a benefit for playmaker Finn Russell
Townsend will be keen to build solid foundations ahead of next year’s Six Nations.
The list of players who captained Scotland under Townsend is extensive. That doesn’t help stability at all. You can talk all you want about the growth of the leadership group. That’s just management language. It also devalues the captaincy if it is constantly passed every six months or so. Pick a player and stick with him.
Jason White: No, I wouldn’t, but I’m very conscious of being on the outside and not being aware of what’s going on behind the scenes. Sione has a number of advantages to having the captain’s armband; Finn can concentrate on running the backs and concentrate on getting the best out of himself, this deepens the leadership group and will give the coaches more information for the 2025 Six Nations on whether Sione, Finn, Rory or Jamie are in the best position. position to lead the team. .
Andy Nicol: Yes. Finn doesn’t need the added pressure of captaincy when he is the natural leader on the field anyway. He determines the tactics, the pace of the game, how many kicks they give, so let him do that and let Sione lead the team. This is something he has done very well for the Warriors and his performances have skyrocketed. Having the captain alongside the playmaker on the field is a good thing and they will work well together.
Do you agree with the decision to exclude Glasgow Warriors hooker Johnny Matthews from the Scottish squad?
DC: No. I have been saying for the last two or three years that Matthews deserves greater recognition in Scotland. Not just in terms of all the tries he has scored for Glasgow Warriors, but also his work in other loose spots. He is a fantastic athlete who has incredible pace for a top-line striker. Add to this his incredible try rate and you have a player who offers a real point of difference.
Johnny Matthews is a testing machine for Glasgow but remains on the fringes with Scotland.
Glasgow’s lineout maul has been incredible in recent years, probably he The most powerful weapon in the entire URC. Matthews is a key part of that. Scotland is missing a trick by not trying to incorporate as many elements as possible.
Jehovah’s Witness: One hundred percent, I would have picked Johnny on the team. His form in Glasgow has been outstanding and he has the incredible ability to find the try line very often. As we saw recently, he scores them from behind mauls but also finishes team attempts. The perfect player to have on the bench and come in and make an impact.
A: This is a difficult question because it is very easy to look at the incredible number of tries he has scored and think he is a favourite. If I were a winger, when scoring tries is your number one job, then I’d be in, but there’s a lot more to being a hooker than scoring tries. Gregor Townsend and his coaches will have looked at all the options in all aspects of being a hooker, with lineout throwing and scruming at the top of their list, and will have come to the conclusion that the other hookers deserve selection sooner. than Matthews.
What do you think of Jonny Gray’s decision to reject a call-up?
DC: There’s a slight sense of déjà vu when you consider what happened to Jonny’s brother Richie when he moved to France early in his career. The elder of the two Gray brothers went through a period of international exile for several years due to a combination of fitness and non-selection issues.
Jonny Gray has chosen to focus on club matters after recently recovering from injury.
Jonny is coming off a serious injury that prevented him from playing competitive rugby for over a year. But he is recovered and is playing well with Bordeaux in France. Surely he should be eager to play for his country again?
You could feel Townsend’s frustration when he talked about it in his team announcement. Scotland needs Jonny Gray. His older brother is now out of the picture. Grant Gilchrist is 34 years old. We don’t have a large number of locks. For me, it’s a bad decision.
Jehovah’s Witness: I can see both sides of the argument. Gregor wants his best players to be available, but Jonny needs to prioritize himself and repay the trust his club has shown in him.
By all indications, the last 16 to 18 months have been really challenging for Jonny. His form at the moment in the Top 14 has been top-notch and the rest will suit him. If he is involved in the Six Nations and Scotland is doing well, he has a chance of being called up by the Lions. He has been a brilliant player for Scotland and hopefully we will see him back in blue in 2025.
A: There has clearly been pressure from the club for Jonny not to travel and this will have been very hard for him. The club that pays his salary and has supported him after his serious injury has said that they want him to rest for the next few weeks. What do you do if you’re Jonny? Go against your employer’s wishes? I feel sorry for him but I’m sure he’ll be back in the Six Nations.
Darcy Graham is in the team and ready to continue his try-scoring form at international level.
Who are you excited to see in Scotland in the Autumn Test series?
DC: Blair Kinghorn. He has taken his game to a new level since moving to Toulouse in France last year and is now a Champions Cup winner. On current form, I think he has a good chance of starting at full-back for the British and Irish Lions on their tour of Australia next year. The days of Scotland trying to use him as an opening have, thankfully, come to an end. That did nothing for Kinghorn’s confidence, when Townsend insisted on playing him out of position and exposing him to criticism.
Jehovah’s Witness: It’s great to have Darcy Graham back fit and in the team, he always gets yards and is one of the most dangerous players moving forward. If our forwards get a quick ball, we will have a very powerful defensive line.
Up front, I’d love to see Ben Muncaster and Freddy Douglas on the field at some point. Ben has made a huge impact at Edinburgh and physically looks fit for international rugby.
Kinghorn has established himself as one of Europe’s elite full-backs since moving to Toulouse.
I saw Freddy play for the under-20s last year at the JRWC and he stood out as someone to watch, although he hasn’t played for Edinburgh yet and is perhaps only in the team through experience, he could be a bolter.
A: It’s great to see Darcy Graham back in his team, but he has some serious competition from the likes of Kyle Rowe and Arran Read, not to mention Duhan van der Merve. Tom Jordan has impressed me massively in Glasgow so I’m looking forward to seeing him make the step up to international rugby. I also hope Jamie Dobie has a good run, as I like him a lot and he deserves some good playing time.
What would constitute a successful series for the Scots?
DC: It has to be three wins out of four. Anything else would be a huge disappointment. Fiji can be a dangerous proposition in its time. They beat England at Twickenham last year and also reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup, beating Australia along the way. But, at home at Murrayfield, Scotland should eliminate them.
It will probably be a cricket result against Portugal, to the point that you have to question the value of facing such an opponent in the autumn Tests. I also hope Scotland beats Australia. The Wallabies are a shadow of the force they used to be. They have now fallen to an all-time low of 10th in the world rankings and have finished bottom of the table in each of the last two Rugby Championship seasons. The big test will be against South Africa, world champions. They will be a tough nut to crack, but Scotland should win the other three games.
The once-mighty Wallabies suffered a 67-27 defeat to Argentina in the Rugby Championship
Jehovah’s Witness: You can look at this in different ways. Increasing team depth would be on my list, continuing to play an attractive attacking game with aggressive defense is also key and as I mentioned earlier, deepening the leadership group will be a real positive.
Having said all that, what really matters is the number of wins we achieve and getting into the habit of winning after an easier summer compared to the other Six Nations countries. We should aim for three wins and be competitive against the Boks and stay with them throughout the game. If we can achieve all four, we will go into the Six Nations full of confidence.
A: I think this is pretty obvious this year. Three wins against Fiji, Portugal and Australia and a very competitive match against South Africa. Anything more than three wins would be incredible considering how good and physical South Africa are, but anything less than three wins would be considered a failure.