Gregor Townsend has revealed that he is considering fielding an entirely changed starting XV in Friday’s second summer Test against the United States as he challenged his Scotland players to avoid the pitfalls of their previous North American expedition.
The Scots opened a four-match July tour with a 73-12 hammering of Canada on Saturday night, a match that featured ten new caps and 11 tries for the tourists.
While delighted with the immediate impact made by a large number of these new faces, Arron Reed and Gus Warr each scored twice, as did Dylan Richardson on his second appearance. Townsend admitted that a vastly different team would meet the Eagles at Audi Field in Washington DC.
A number of the squad’s more experienced players, several of whom featured in Glasgow’s dramatic URC title triumph, were held back in Ottawa but are expected to return for the meeting with an American side who lost 22-20 to Romania in Chicago last Friday night. Scotland thrashed the Romanians 84-0 at the World Cup last September.
Among those in contention for their first involvement on the tour are the Warriors’ Huw Jones, Sione Tuipulotu, George Horne, Scott Cummings and Rory Darge plus the Edinburgh stars Jamie Ritchie, Duhan van der Merwe, Ewan Ashman and Pierre Schoeman and the exiles Adam Hastings (who is rejoining Glasgow from Gloucester) and Alex Craig. Patrick Harrison, the Edinburgh hooker, is in line for a first cap.
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Asked how many personnel changes supporters could expect this week, Townsend told The Times: “Quite a lot. It’s a six-day turnaround, and the team that played on Saturday night had two weeks’ training: a week in Scotland and then one in Canada.
“A lot of our other players just came to Canada, the Glasgow players in particular, and they’ve been running together against the team that played on Saturday night. There will be a big crossover with people who have to be on the bench. You will see a different team next week and it’s about us creating cohesion but also getting those two days’ training early next week.
“It would be difficult for everyone [who played against Canada] to back that up next week. Some of them will get the chance, mostly on the bench but there are another two games after that [against Chile and Uruguay]. Players will want to know if they’re going to be involved in rounds three and four, although some already know they won’t be here for Uruguay because the game is outside the [international player release] window.
“The squad will start to be trimmed as we leave North America. It will be a new team next week, whether it’s 15 changes or a couple off it, it will be close to that.”
Townsend conceded that he had been surprised by the Americans’ weekend defeat, but said he had already reminded his players how, back in 2018, a big win over Canada was followed by a chastening 30-29 defeat by the United States in Houston, the Eagles’ first win over a tier-one nation.
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In Greg Peterson, the captain whom Townsend signed for the first of two spells at Scotstoun, and the Bristol Bears fly half AJ MacGinty, the Scotland coach believes this week’s hosts boast two particular talents.
“They’ve got some very good players, very good,” Townsend said. “Greg brings huge size for setting up mauls, stopping mauls, and the scrum. Sometimes after a defeat you become a much better team from what you’ve learnt but also through that determination to put out a better performance. We’ve just got to make sure that we hit the standards we want to set on this tour. Mostly on Saturday night we did that and now we have to back it up next week.”
