In October 2012, just two months into his debut season as Glasgow Warriors coach, Gregor Townsend picked his team to play Northampton Saints, his first Heineken Cup match. In doing so, he took the kind of gamble that would become his trademark over the next five years by naming just two backs on the bench, bucking the convention of picking three.
When Glasgow raced into a 15-point lead in the opening half hour, Townsend’s move looked like a masterstroke. They had an advantage that appeared unassailable, and the muscle power in reserve to make sure it would be. But the wheels came off as they lost Stuart Hogg, Ruaridh Jackson and Sean Lamont, and they ended up with a makeshift backline that had a hooker on the wing and a flanker at centre. Unsurprisingly, Northampton won the game 24-15.
In light of which, Townsend’s decision to opt for another 6/2 split between forwards and backs among his replacements for Saturday’s clash with Italy in Singapore, his first in charge of the national team, could look just a little foolhardy. However, things are very different this time round.
On one hand, the fierce heat and humidity in this part of the world will drain the forwards of energy at an alarming rate; on another, Townsend has sound reasons for believing that he now has forwards who can cope with unexpected challenges — including doing a shift behind the scrum if the situation demands it.
Over the next two years, and around 25 games, Townsend must develop a squad and a style of play that will work for Scotland at the 2019 World Cup in Japan. But you could say he is already some way down that road. With a heavy Glasgow presence in his current squad, he already has a group of players who can move comfortably, if not quite seamlessly, between positions as game unfolds. “We are fortunate as coaches because we already have players who are fairly versatile,” said Townsend after announcing his side and his strategy at the team hotel. “I’m a big believer in having flexibility and adaptability on the playing field, to adjust to different situations but also to play in different positions.
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“When you have a 6/2 split on the bench, you have to have confidence that one of those forwards can play in the backs as well — which I have. Ryan Wilson and John Barclay can do that. Ryan has played centre before and John could easily operate as a centre.
“Nowadays, when you look at things like five-man lineouts and you look at phase play, they are often running as backs anyway. But it [having a forward in the backline] is a situation we will only go to if we have injuries.”
It is not simply a matter of personnel. Townsend’s belief in playing a game based on pace, tempo and intelligent broken-field running is almost an article of faith, but it is a style that relies critically on having players who can adapt to what is going on around them. It is trite to talk about numbers on backs becoming meaningless, but those digits should never be seen to indicate the limits of any player’s abilities.
“When I was coming through as a player — and I felt this myself — you were told you should focus on one position,” Townsend continued. “You didn’t want to be known as a jack of all trades and master of none. But when I went to France it was seen as a positive if you could play in different positions.
“From a coaching perspective it is a huge help to know, for instance, that Peter Horne can fit in and play three positions at a higher level. If you ask [Saracens coach] Mark McCall then he will tell you that Duncan Taylor is a huge asset because he can cover 12, 13, wing and 15. It might be that he has one position that is better than the others, but it’s just great to have Duncan Taylor on the field for his influence and his workrate.”
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The venue for this weekend’s game is significant, too. It was chosen, almost literally, as a halfway house as both Scotland and Italy will move on to Australia the following day, but it offers an environment that the players might well have to deal with again when they go to Japan in two years’ time.
Playing in conditions on the brutal side of challenging has become the norm for Scotland over the past few years. They were in Houston in 2014, Japan last year, and it seems likely that they will be in North America again next summer. Nobody would ever elect to play in a sauna, but the Scots will not lack experience if the 2019 World Cup draw sends them into one again.
Townsend said: “It will be as big a challenge for Italy as it is for us so we have to adapt better than them to the conditions. We are going to get conditions like this in the next few years. There will be similar conditions in Fiji in a couple of weeks and in Japan, potentially similar, depending where we play. It is something we have to adapt to and we will now see what we can do to impose our game.”