Ali Price was a British and Irish Lions Test player in 2021 and has been firmly established as Scotland’s first choice scrum-half since Greig Laidlaw retired from international rugby after the 2019 World Cup – but reputations count for nothing in Franco Smith’s world.
Since taking over as head coach at Glasgow Warriors in late summer, the wily South African has shaken things up with his no-nonsense approach to getting the team into optimum physical condition, and his bold selection calls which have seen several players who started the season as fringe characters seize their opportunity to take centre stage, with stand-off Tom Jordan the most obvious example of that.
At scrum-half, too, Smith has pushed back against the conventional wisdom of his predecessor Danny Wilson, and of national team head coach Gregor Townsend, by making George Horne his go-to man, with Price finding himself as the support act coming off the bench.
