Scotland Autumn Series 2021

First topic message reminder :

I know it's probably too early for this but seeing as my Summer Tour thread was well received, I thought I'd start another one for the Autumn Series with my thoughts on the teams etc, I've got to stay on the right side of the members hahaha.

It's certainly far too early to even predict a squad as no club matches have taken place yet, both Scottish sides are in the rebuild phase (I'll be watching closely) but that's for a later date.

I would like to echo what I said on Facebook a few weeks ago which is that I hope we get to see Ashman, Auterac, Sebastian, Henderson, Tuipolotu in the autumn, in other words, hopefully they ain't poached from us haha.

Anyway, here goes with our opposition:

First up is Tonga on October 30th, KO tbc: I do not really know much about them but I would imagine we would see a youngish team in this test, seeing as a lot of them missed out on the summer tour and, supposedly this is outside the test window which means clubs aren't forced to release players if they wish. I did notice that Tonga got hammered by New Zealand who humiliated them by over 100pts, however, I see them put up a better fight against us but do fully expect us to win this one.

Then we move on to November, when clubs are obliged to release players.

7th November: Australia, KO: 1415hrs: This will be a tough test because Australia are a very good team that recently managed a test series win over France. They have very good wingers that will be tough to stop so I'm predicting a very close test which we will lose narrowly.

13th November: South Africa, KO 1300hrs: This will be our toughest test of the series imho. I've watched a lot of them over the past month and tbh they are an excellent team with quality all over the park. Even in the first test, they were creating numerous chances, Lions just got lucky with some of the ref or tmo decisions imho. What I took out of the first test was that, if you keep Kolbe quiet then you have a chance no pressure there then DVDM, Darcy etc. I'm predicting a loss here too, probably by about 15pts,though I hope I'm wrong.

20th November: Japan, KO 1300hrs: This test has the makings of being entertaining and high scoring if previous affairs are anything to go by. Against the Lions and Ireland, they put up brave fights but ultimately lost due to errors and individual brilliance of their opponents but they will believe that they can win because they have done so before. I think this will be very high scoring with us getting the win by a margin of 5.

October and November can't come quickly enough imho lol, I just can't get excited by Edinburgh and Glasgow, both will struggle in the upcoming pro 14, especially as they are rebuilding.

Now that the squad has been picked (was yesterday the official squad that Gregor will pick his Tonga 22 from?), what would you have as the, matchday 22 and how do you see it going ?

For me, I really want Ross Thompson, Jamie Dobie and Rufus McLean to be in, other than that, I'm not bothered, though I'd like to see Charlie Savala too but that's highly unlikely isn't it.

My squad would look like

Schoeman - McInally - McCallum (Bhatti - Turner - Z Fagerson)
Gilchrist - Hodgeson (Sykes)
Ritchie - M Fagerson - Darge (Richardson/Haining)

Dobie - Thompson (Price - Lang)
Johnson - Tuipulotu
McLean - Forbes - Graham (Steyn)

Think that would give a mix of experience to come on whilst letting the youngsters have a real go. Ritchie gets some captain experience with McInally and Gilchrist able to step in if needed.

I did want Savala but then I had concerns on who covers 12 so Lang sneaks in. Also not sure how the backrow is balanced if MF has to go off with Richardson coming on and having no no.8.

Don't really want to see Harley or Watson. Harley because he is so low in my personal pecking order (reckon he is competing at around 8-10th choice) and Watson because we know what he can do and it is worth seeing how the new kid on the block gets on.

I can see Zander sitting the first game out, bearing in mind what is coming over the following three weekends, especially if they genuinely want to try Keeble out at TH, which otherwise begs the question as to why Glasgow are playing him there this weekend.

Again I don't see Price in the squad either, Horne to start and Dobie to debut of the bench.

Does Kinghorne get a run at FH as well? I think he possibly might.

So I will go for this lineup.


1. Bhatti
2. Turner
3. Keeble
4. Gilchrist
5. Sykes (looks in better form than Hodgson so far this season)
6. Ritchie - Capt
7. Darge
8. Fagerson M
9. Horne G
10. Thompson
11. Mclean
12. Johnson
13. Tuipulotu
14. Graham
15. Forbes


Subs

Schoeman
McInally
McCallam
Hodgeson
Richardson
Dobie
Kinghorn
Steyn

Looks a good side to me Gee, I'd be very happy with that.

I think Gee has it about right.

My only changes:

Switch Bhatti and Schoeman
Switch Turner and McInally
Bennett at 13

funnyExiledScot wrote:I think Gee has it about right.

My only changes:

Switch Bhatti and Schoeman
Switch Turner and McInally
Bennett at 13

take out three rugby players and insert three Luvvies? Including the Great Overcompensater? "Call me Rambo", indeed I will once you put down your Kaffe Fasset knitting pattern.

Has Schoeman played for Scotland yet? If not then he needs to be capped. Similarly, Shona needs to be capped at 13. Not 12, not after yesterday. is third behind Shona and Seaman for me at the moment. Bhatti hasn't really impressed since returning to the rugby club.

I have to say Mark Bennett played well yesterday and had a good case for MoM

We are used to seeing him in attack, but he made a couple of try saving tackles as well, which has not always been his strength.

He is another who seems to be reveling in the post Cockers era and he will likely be in the mix for Tonga as well.

Shuggy Jones is not making the starting line up for Quins atm and may struggle to get into the mix currently. \we are not short of good options at centre these days.

Bennett has been a man reborn this season - he's playing his best rugby since 2015. I'd love to see him start v Tonga.

Jones is yet to get much of a sniff for Quins yet, not helped by them having a strong start to the season and stiff competition. There was a bit of an unknown youngster starting ahead of him at 13 this weekend too even though Marchant was shifted to wing. He came off the bench on Friday and ran the wrong line to mess up a key attacking backs move.

He was on holiday last week though which is a bit strange so early into the season! Not the best look if you're meant to be fighting for your place.

RDW wrote:Bennett has been a man reborn this season - he's playing his best rugby since 2015. I'd love to see him start v Tonga.

Jones is yet to get much of a sniff for Quins yet, not helped by them having a strong start to the season and stiff competition. There was a bit of an unknown youngster starting ahead of him at 13 this weekend too even though Marchant was shifted to wing. He came off the bench on Friday and ran the wrong line to mess up a key attacking backs move.

He was on holiday last week though which is a bit strange so early into the season! Not the best look if you're meant to be fighting for your place.

Did Quins have a bye round last week? That would explain it, or maybe they just rotate everyone out of the squad periodically to keep them fresh.

Either way, the way Bennett, Tuipolotu and Harris are playing, it will be tough for him to make the squad, let alone the team.

Worth throwing Matt Scott's name into the mix too he's been ever present for Leicester this season who have started on great form.

I can't see him having much of an international future anymore as he just doesn't seem to fit the bill anymore, but he would do the job if called upon.

Would be a real shame if he didn't add to his caps before he retired.

When is the squad trimmed (if it is), I'd presume Tuesday or Wednesday as the training camp ends tomorrow.

Anyway,, on the topic of Scots in the Premiership, poor Josh Bayliss and his team aren't having it good just now, today getting annihilated 71-17 against newly promoted Saracens :O :O.

Not sure what has happened to Cammy Henderson lately as he's not been involved all season, though I'd like to see him capped at some point just to keep him out of EJs grasp lol.

I don't know if we can read too much into this but Fraser Dingwall has been snubbed by Eddie again, it seems he only gets called up as a replacement if anyone gets injured.

The longer this goes on, the better our chances of poaching him become, especially if he gets irked at continuously getting snubbed.

I can't see Dingwall ever being capped by England but would struggle to get in our squad atm as well, we seem to be falling over with good centres just now and some decent players will miss out.

Still if he keeps playing well, you never know.

Yeah, I actually don't want Fraser Dingwall or Bevan Rodd to play for us tbh, both have made up their minds and tbh, that's fine, we have capable players in their positions anyway. I just posted the comment because I know some on this forum still hope he will switch allegiance.

Anyway, here is a good article on new boy Dylan Richardson .

http://www.talkingrugbyunion.co.uk/the-making-of-scotland-new-boy-dylan-richardson/31659.htm

Ach we live in a world where you can have multiple nationalities and support both Scotland AND *shudder* England. For the Dingwalls, the Rodds, the Grahams of the UK, the door should always be open until they are capped. I'm really not opposed to players dipping their toes in a training camp and going "actually nah, this doesnt feel right" and then joining a different national camp.

On the flipside i still don't believe we should be capping players for the sake of it to prevent other countries from capping these players. This can often be detrimental to the quality of the international game - look at the amount of 1-5 cap former all blacks that could have played for whichever pacific island nation. Its a loss to the international game sometimes so no, "capturing" players is always a bad idea.

What Tramptastic said. I find the whole discussion over player poaching, dual qualification, and so on, to be increasingly wearisome. In today's world people move around a lot more, and that will have impacts also on their kids, etc.

There was a brief period in my life where I would theoretically have qualified for 6 different rugby nations: one through birth, one through residency (no longer applicable), two through my parents, and two through my grand-parents. I can say that I would quite happily have played for five of them*, and that's before you add in increased potential earnings and so on.

*Not so keen on Germany, which my (Jewish) paternal grandparents fled during that somewhat turbulent time in the '30s (also never really knew those grandparents, which I guess makes it harder to form an emotional attachment to their country of origin?). Some fascinating, if somewhat grim, history on that side of the family that my Dad's been researching, mind you. Anyway, I disgress...

Mad For....we never digress on these threads.

jimbopip wrote:Mad For....we never digress on these threads.

Is that a digression on a digression?

Tramptastic wrote:

jimbopip wrote:Mad For....we never digress on these threads.

Is that a digression on a digression?

Digress-ception? Been teaching programming, and was talking about "levels of indirection" a bit, so maybe I've got layers/levels on the brain...

See!!! That's the kind of digressing that we cannot have on these strictly rugby boards.

According to The Offside Line article in Ali Price, tomorrow is the actual AI squad announcement :O, I thought it was just the Tonga match squad and the full AI squad would be next week or the week after.

Oh well, that makes it more interesting , wonder who this squad's surprise addition will be lol, anyone fancy a guess haha?

Sorry Jimbo, why don't you get us back on track by explaining whichever overly convoluted nickname with obscure references only you understand should be bestowed on our latest honorary jock Dylan Richardson?

Mad for Chelsea wrote:Sorry Jimbo, why don't you get us back on track by explaining whichever overly convoluted nickname with obscure references only you understand should be bestowed on our latest honorary jock Dylan Richardson?

Another Saffa.

jimbopip wrote:See!!! That's the kind of digressing that we cannot have on these strictly rugby boards.

If it was just Strictly rugby boards the only people we'd be talking about would be Martin Offiah, Matt Dawson, Kenny Logan, Austin Healy, Gavin Henson, Ben Cohen, Thom Evans and, soon, Ugo Monye.

One of the biggest tests of my relationship with Mrs RDW was when she pointed to Austin Healy on Strictly and said "he's hot - look at his guns!"

Old Man wrote:

Mad for Chelsea wrote:Sorry Jimbo, why don't you get us back on track by explaining whichever overly convoluted nickname with obscure references only you understand should be bestowed on our latest honorary jock Dylan Richardson?

Another Saffa.

I think its pronounced Scoffa or Bock Jock

Also, i dare you to go up to him and tell him he's not Scottish... He only weighs a 110kgs so you might be faster over the first 0.25cm before he catches you and puts you on the braai- i mean stuffs you in his haggis

Tramptastic wrote:

Old Man wrote:

Mad for Chelsea wrote:Sorry Jimbo, why don't you get us back on track by explaining whichever overly convoluted nickname with obscure references only you understand should be bestowed on our latest honorary jock Dylan Richardson?

Another Saffa.

I think its pronounced Scoffa or Bock Jock

Also, i dare you to go up to him and tell him he's not Scottish... He only weighs a 110kgs so you might be faster over the first 0.25cm before he catches you and puts you on the braai- i mean stuffs you in his haggis

Oh my, sensitive much?

As a South African I can comment on players born and raised in SA, Dylan was part of the Springbok trials last year November, so forgive me for being pissed off about one of our own being poached.

In fact I would love to have a discussion with him about why he chose Scotland.

Jealousy is a terrible thing.

Old Man wrote:

Tramptastic wrote:

Old Man wrote:

Mad for Chelsea wrote:Sorry Jimbo, why don't you get us back on track by explaining whichever overly convoluted nickname with obscure references only you understand should be bestowed on our latest honorary jock Dylan Richardson?

Another Saffa.

I think its pronounced Scoffa or Bock Jock

Also, i dare you to go up to him and tell him he's not Scottish... He only weighs a 110kgs so you might be faster over the first 0.25cm before he catches you and puts you on the braai- i mean stuffs you in his haggis

Oh my, sensitive much?

As a South African I can comment on players born and raised in SA, Dylan was part of the Springbok trials last year November, so forgive me for being pissed off about one of our own being poached.

In fact I would love to have a discussion with him about why he chose Scotland.

Fair to say Tramp's tongue was probably firmly in his cheek here

RDW wrote:

Old Man wrote:

Tramptastic wrote:

Old Man wrote:

Mad for Chelsea wrote:Sorry Jimbo, why don't you get us back on track by explaining whichever overly convoluted nickname with obscure references only you understand should be bestowed on our latest honorary jock Dylan Richardson?

Another Saffa.

I think its pronounced Scoffa or Bock Jock

Also, i dare you to go up to him and tell him he's not Scottish... He only weighs a 110kgs so you might be faster over the first 0.25cm before he catches you and puts you on the braai- i mean stuffs you in his haggis

Oh my, sensitive much?

As a South African I can comment on players born and raised in SA, Dylan was part of the Springbok trials last year November, so forgive me for being pissed off about one of our own being poached.

In fact I would love to have a discussion with him about why he chose Scotland.

Fair to say Tramp's tongue was probably firmly in his cheek here

Doubt that very much RDW.

Old Man wrote:

RDW wrote:

Old Man wrote:

Tramptastic wrote:

Old Man wrote:

Mad for Chelsea wrote:Sorry Jimbo, why don't you get us back on track by explaining whichever overly convoluted nickname with obscure references only you understand should be bestowed on our latest honorary jock Dylan Richardson?

Another Saffa.

I think its pronounced Scoffa or Bock Jock

Also, i dare you to go up to him and tell him he's not Scottish... He only weighs a 110kgs so you might be faster over the first 0.25cm before he catches you and puts you on the braai- i mean stuffs you in his haggis

Oh my, sensitive much?

As a South African I can comment on players born and raised in SA, Dylan was part of the Springbok trials last year November, so forgive me for being pissed off about one of our own being poached.

In fact I would love to have a discussion with him about why he chose Scotland.

Fair to say Tramp's tongue was probably firmly in his cheek here

Doubt that very much RDW.

I can confirm my tongue was firmly in cheek to the point where it pushed through, ruptured my face and now im sitting in A&E

never take anything i say seriously

except when you should

Mad for Chelsea wrote:Sorry Jimbo, why don't you get us back on track by explaining whichever overly convoluted nickname with obscure references only you understand should be bestowed on our latest honorary jock Dylan Richardson?

Mad For, young mr Richardson caught my eye when he appeared against Glasgow. At one of the first line outs the Glasgow defence were pinged for coming up too early. He stepped up and applauded, them, got in their faces and generally behaved like a younger Batman. 
Is he seen as the replacement for RW? 

So...Robin it is.


At the risk of derailing this load of old digressive waffle (Flounder's Mrs fantasises about Matt Dawson...as if we need to know that! MrsPip says Matt Lucas would be an upgrade for her.) if Robin The Boy Wonder does get capped then it would make more sense for him to be based in the UK, preferably in the land of the rolling heather. Batman is getting older. Glasgow like having a niggly wind up merchant in the back row. Does Richardson look like a future Warrior? You heard it here first.

42 man squad is out!

As many were speculating about, Maitland has been axed. Harsh on him but he’ll hopefully be back for the 6N if Saracens play well this season. McLean, Graham and others are all playing well so was going to be a tough decision to make. Hoyland over Maitland though? Seems a bit harsh to me considering the experience and stability Maitland brings.

Full Squad

Forwards:
Ewan Ashman – Sale Sharks - uncapped
Josh Bayliss – Bath Rugby - uncapped
Jamie Bhatti – Glasgow Warriors – 18 caps
Fraser Brown – Glasgow Warriors – 54 caps
Luke Crosbie – Edinburgh Rugby – uncapped
Rory Darge – Glasgow Warriors – uncapped
Matt Fagerson – Glasgow Warriors – 13 caps
Zander Fagerson – Glasgow Warriors – 38 caps
Grant Gilchrist – Edinburgh Rugby – 45 caps
Nick Haining – Edinburgh Rugby – 8 caps
Rob Harley – Glasgow Warriors – 22 caps
Jamie Hodgson – Edinburgh Rugby – uncapped
Oli Kebble – Glasgow Warriors – 8 caps
Murray McCallum – Glasgow Warriors – 3 caps
Stuart McInally – Edinburgh Rugby – 40 caps
Dylan Richardson – Cell C Sharks – uncapped
Jamie Ritchie – Edinburgh Rugby – 27 caps
Sam Skinner – Exeter Chiefs – 12 caps
Pierre Schoeman – Edinburgh Rugby – uncapped
Rory Sutherland – Worcester Warriors – 16 caps
Marshall Sykes – Edinburgh Rugby – uncapped
George Turner – Glasgow Warriors – 17 caps
Hamish Watson – Edinburgh Rugby – 41 caps


Backs:
Mark Bennett – Edinburgh Rugby – 22 caps
Darcy Graham – Edinburgh Rugby – 19 caps
Jamie Dobie – Glasgow Warriors – uncapped
Chris Harris – Gloucester Rugby – 28 caps
Adam Hastings – Gloucester Rugby – 23 caps
Stuart Hogg – Exeter Chiefs – 85 caps
George Horne – Glasgow Warriors – 14 caps
Damien Hoyland – Edinburgh Rugby – 4 caps
Sam Johnson – Glasgow Warriors – 18 caps
Huw Jones – Harlequins – 31 caps
Blair Kinghorn – Edinburgh Rugby – 25 caps
Duhan van de Merwe – Worcester Warriors – 10 caps
Rufus McLean – Glasgow Warriors – uncapped
Ali Price – Glasgow Warriors – 42 caps
Finn Russell – Racing 92 – 55 caps
Matt Scott – Leicester Tigers – 39 caps
Kyle Steyn – Glasgow Warriors – 1 cap
Ross Thompson – Glasgow Warriors – uncapped
Sione Tuipulotu – Glasgow Warriors – uncapped

Maybe Maitland is having a tiff with townsend? Mind did he not get dropped for the last game of the six nations for an odd reason?

Well Oli Keeble is definitely in the squad as a TH and will likely be benching for Zander in the big games.

Harley in there as second row cover, with no JG, RG, Cummings or Craig (3 out of four injured). Maybe decided that Henderson and Davidson not quite ready.

There are going to be some really tough calls to make in the midfield backs though, so many good options there!

11 uncapped players as well, that is a lot. A bit of a changing of the guard going on here.

Aye, whether he deserves it or not i can see Gilchrist starting as an experienced 2nd row option with one other relative newby to join him. Personally i'd like to see Skinner and Sykes start instead but heyho, the cupboard is bare!

In the backrow i'd chuck in Darge now, he's very much ready so lets see how he does against Tonga.

I'm also very much onboard for the continuing Mark Bennett redemption arc, I think he's a happy medium between Shug and Harris

bsando wrote:42 man squad is out!

As many were speculating about, Maitland has been axed. Harsh on him but he’ll hopefully be back for the 6N if Saracens play well this season. McLean, Graham and others are all playing well so was going to be a tough decision to make. Hoyland over Maitland though? Seems a bit harsh to me considering the experience and stability Maitland brings.

Could be mainly for Tonga I guess? McLean, Steyn and Graham are the other wing options for that game, but having a fourth option to cover knocks/injuries and for training would make sense. No Maits would obviously not be available for that one anyway.

Quite an exciting squad overall. Second-row depth will be tested, as stated. Also not that many options at 12 after Johnson? I guess Scott would be back-up, but then you'd be looking at the likes of Tuipulotu, who hasn't looked great there for Glasgow... Whereas at 13 we have Bennett, Harris, Jones, Tuipulotu, plus Scott/Steyn who can cover. Seems a bit unbalanced?

Mad for Chelsea wrote:

bsando wrote:42 man squad is out!

As many were speculating about, Maitland has been axed. Harsh on him but he’ll hopefully be back for the 6N if Saracens play well this season. McLean, Graham and others are all playing well so was going to be a tough decision to make. Hoyland over Maitland though? Seems a bit harsh to me considering the experience and stability Maitland brings.

Could be mainly for Tonga I guess? McLean, Steyn and Graham are the other wing options for that game, but having a fourth option to cover knocks/injuries and for training would make sense. No Maits would obviously not be available for that one anyway.

Quite an exciting squad overall. Second-row depth will be tested, as stated. Also not that many options at 12 after Johnson? I guess Scott would be back-up, but then you'd be looking at the likes of Tuipulotu, who hasn't looked great there for Glasgow... Whereas at 13 we have Bennett, Harris, Jones, Tuipulotu, plus Scott/Steyn who can cover. Seems a bit unbalanced?

Scott is definitely the 2nd option at 12 for this series. He can play 13 too just as well so he's a good squad option. But yeh, after that it seems a bit barebones at 12!

Mad for Chelsea wrote:

bsando wrote:42 man squad is out!

As many were speculating about, Maitland has been axed. Harsh on him but he’ll hopefully be back for the 6N if Saracens play well this season. McLean, Graham and others are all playing well so was going to be a tough decision to make. Hoyland over Maitland though? Seems a bit harsh to me considering the experience and stability Maitland brings.

Could be mainly for Tonga I guess? McLean, Steyn and Graham are the other wing options for that game, but having a fourth option to cover knocks/injuries and for training would make sense. No Maits would obviously not be available for that one anyway.

Quite an exciting squad overall. Second-row depth will be tested, as stated. Also not that many options at 12 after Johnson? I guess Scott would be back-up, but then you'd be looking at the likes of Tuipulotu, who hasn't looked great there for Glasgow... Whereas at 13 we have Bennett, Harris, Jones, Tuipulotu, plus Scott/Steyn who can cover. Seems a bit unbalanced?

Could also go for the full Russell-Hastings brand of Finnsanity

Tramptastic wrote:

Mad for Chelsea wrote:

bsando wrote:42 man squad is out!

As many were speculating about, Maitland has been axed. Harsh on him but he’ll hopefully be back for the 6N if Saracens play well this season. McLean, Graham and others are all playing well so was going to be a tough decision to make. Hoyland over Maitland though? Seems a bit harsh to me considering the experience and stability Maitland brings.

Could be mainly for Tonga I guess? McLean, Steyn and Graham are the other wing options for that game, but having a fourth option to cover knocks/injuries and for training would make sense. No Maits would obviously not be available for that one anyway.

Quite an exciting squad overall. Second-row depth will be tested, as stated. Also not that many options at 12 after Johnson? I guess Scott would be back-up, but then you'd be looking at the likes of Tuipulotu, who hasn't looked great there for Glasgow... Whereas at 13 we have Bennett, Harris, Jones, Tuipulotu, plus Scott/Steyn who can cover. Seems a bit unbalanced?

Scott is definitely the 2nd option at 12 for this series. He can play 13 too just as well so he's a good squad option. But yeh, after that it seems a bit barebones at 12!

Lang would almost certainly have been there as well had he not got injured on saturday!

Didn't realise Lang was injured. Redpath is injured as well of course. What about Hutchinson?

For my own benefit as much as anything. Struggle to keep touch otherwise

HK: Turner, McInally, Brown, Ashman
LH: Sutherland, Schoeman, Bhatti
TH: Z Fagerson, Kebble, McCallum
LK: Gilchrist, Skinner, Hodgson, Sykes, Harley
6/8: Ritchie, M Fagerson, Bayliss, Crosbie, Haining
OS: Watson, Richardson, Darge

SH: Price, Horne, Dobie
FH: Russell, Hastings, Thompson
Centres: Johnson, Harris, H Jones, Scott, Tuipulotu, Bennett
Back 3: Steyn, Graham, DVDM, McClean, Hoyland, Kinghorn, Hogg

Looking at the squad, I am guessing we are looking to put Scott at 12 which should work (I remember when some kept putting 12 after his name when he was at Edinburgh). Tuipulotu and H Jones have some experience there even if I do have flashbacks of that game in Cardiff.

I don't think Hutchinson has been in top form so far this season and we have enough centres banging at the door as is. H Jones is probably the lucky boy.

Hazel Sapling wrote:For my own benefit as much as anything. Struggle to keep touch otherwise

HK: Turner, McInally, Brown, Ashman
LH: Sutherland, Schoeman, Bhatti
TH: Z Fagerson, Kebble, McCallum
LK: Gilchrist, Skinner, Hodgson, Sykes, Harley
6/8: Ritchie, M Fagerson, Bayliss, Crosbie, Haining
OS: Watson, Richardson, Darge

SH: Price, Horne, Dobie
FH: Russell, Hastings, Thompson
Centres: Johnson, Harris, H Jones, Scott, Tuipulotu, Bennett
Back 3: Steyn, Graham, DVDM, McLean, Hoyland, Kinghorn, Hogg

Players in italic are those who will be unavailable for Tonga (not sure on Robin? are URC players from outside Scotland available?). The backs mainly pick themselves based on that. You would expect Hoyland to drop out of the 23, and obviously one of the SHs. Price maybe? Get him back into things at Glasgow first. More decisions to be made in the forwards.

Mad For! They're all in italics.
The saffer sides all have games this weekend so Robin will be in the UK till next week so I think he'll play.
Aldi Price should get a run out against the Ladyboys and so be up to speed.

Shug was on holiday last week so he may not be up to speed.

Slightly disappointed not to see Cameron Henderson in but that's mainly due to a small fear of England snatching him from us lol.

Delighted Ashman is in though and strangely, there's no surprises, is Townsend feeling ok haha.

Will the squad be trimmed after Tonga because 42 is a huge number for 3 test matches :O.

Jeezo we really are looking threadbare at lock! Not great with the Books incoming. Great options at centre and back 3. Back row for me still looks very lightweight.

As for Richardson's - it's not a designated internal weekend for Tonga so he won't be available unless his club agree to release him.... which they probably won't...

I think Henderson is injured, otherwise he is just not getting picked for Leicester at the minute.

It is strange not to see R Gray in there as he would provide a huge amount at the set piece that we will need against SA. On the other hand, opportunity knocks for Hodgson and Sykes to get ahead of Craig, Davidson, Henderson and Hunter-Hill.