GREGOR Townsend has revealed that he has already decided on all but two or three names in his squad for this weekend’s first Test against Argentina - a match he is certain will be considerably more demanding than Scotland A’s 45-5 win over Chile on Saturday night. Speaking after that seven-tries-to-one victory in Santiago, the head coach also said that five or six players will be cut from the 39-strong squad tomorrow, before the tour party travels from Buenos Aires to Jujuy in northern Argentina on Wednesday.
As he explained after announcing his squad earlier this month, it has always been Townsend’s plan to jettison some players this week, and then to make a further cut before the final Test. Similarly, he has known for some time what the bulk of his team will be for the first Test - although a couple of performances at the Estadio Santa Laura Universidad in the Chilean capital may well have persuaded him to reconsider his options.
“We’re 90 per cent sure of the team we’re going out with next week,” Townsend said after a match in which Damien Hoyland bagged a hat-trick of tries, George Horne scored two, and Rufus McLean and Ali Price also touched down. “There were some places to play for today, more on the bench than the starting team, and we now have our English-based players with us - they’re available for next week, so that’s another 12 players available.
“We will have a group of five or six players - we haven't decided on the numbers - that will leave on Tuesday. We go up to Jujuy on Wednesday afternoon after being in Buenos Aires for three, four days, and there will be a group that won't come up with us. So our squad will either be 33 or 34 come Wednesday evening.”
No injuries were reported after the Chile game, which was a satisfyingly demanding work-out for his players, according to the coach. “We knew this game was a chance to see players that will not be involved in next week’s Test, but it was also very good preparation for us,” he continued.
“We trained well, but a game is the best teacher, the best learning for us - what we do set piece, round our kicking game, what we did defensively. In a way I’m glad we had to get those defensive sets in the second half. At the time you’re thinking we should be executing a bit more and scoring more tries, but to go through that period when we had to defend is great practice for us, because we’ll have to defend a lot next week and throughout the three Tests.
“Chile are an improving team but not in the top 20 in the world, while Argentina are eighth in the world and have a squad of professional players in the top clubs in Europe. What we saw today was a committed team that played for 80 minutes that were cohesive and had some good rugby players, but we know Argentina will be a much bigger step up.”
Chile got their reward for that committed 80-minute performance in the closing minutes, when back-row forward Santiago Edwards scored their only points of the game at the end of a long period of pressure. For long enough it had looked as if Scotland would manage to keep a clean sheet, thanks in no small part to some excellent last-ditch defending from substitute scrum-half Price.
Once they did concede, the visitors were stung into replying immediately, with McLean then Price himself touching down after lightning-quick counter-attacks. Blair Kinghorn’s conversion of the latter score, added to the four successful kicks from Ross Thompson in the first half, took the team’s final tally close to the half-century.
In that first half, Scotland were on top almost throughout. Hoyland’s first two tries came either side of Horne’s brace, and for long periods of play Chile were barely able to get out of their own half.
When Hoyland completed his hat-trick five minutes into the second half, an embarrassingly one-sided end to the contest began to look likely. Instead, Scotland slackened off somewhat while the Chileans continued to fight as if they were only three points down, not 33.
Townsend knows that some defensive shortcomings exposed by the home side will need to be addressed, but he also recognised that some practice of being on the back foot could well be beneficial for his team. “The game of rugby is with the ball and without the ball,” he added. “I thought our hustle and work back when we lost ball and Chile made breaks were excellent.
“It’s no bad thing to concede points as well. It reminds everybody we have work to do next week, and next week will be a big step up in terms of opposition and the quality of players we will be up against.”
