Scotland's Summer Tour of the Americas

First topic message reminder :

North American Fixtures

Saturday 6 July: Canada v Scotland, TD Place, Ottawa

Friday 12 July: USA v Scotland, Audi Field, Washington DC

South American Fixtures

Saturday 20 July: Chile v Scotland, Estadio Nacional, Santiago

Saturday 27 July: Uruguay v Scotland, Estadio Charrúa, Montevideo

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/articles/c2504p0qwvyo

Opposition World Rankings

Canada 21st
USA 17th
Chile 23rd
Uruguay 18th

Scotland Squad

[TBC]

Talking Points

Primed to be a development tour, Scotland will face four sides outside the top ten ranked rugby teams in world rugby.  

Despite a poor World Cup and a poor Six Nations, Scotland will have an opportunity to develop fringe players. Who knows, perhaps we will have a bolter or two link up with the squad?

With Glasgow flying high in the URC it is highly likely that many soon to be capped players will come from the Warriors camp.

With Russell and Darge being Co-Captains for the Six Nations will we see a new Captain selected to lead the squad this Summer?

Which players will most likely be rested and not be a part of the touring squad?

Jez, Sione just knocked their centre into the middle of next week. He might even get a card for his troubles

Well a card was probably deserved but it would have been hard to have given one

Cumbrian wrote:Anyway, her in doors will put up with many things, but watching a neutral rugby game after 9:00pm on a Saturday night isn't one of them!  Enjoy gentlemen, I'll catch the second half on youtube in the morning.

MrsPip is of a similar state of mind. I too shall bid you adieu.

That was another good try from Dobie

26-6 Scotland

Good and well deserved try from Chile

26-11 Scotland

Well that was atrocious maul defense.

Great try from Chile though.

Toonie oot.

This has to be up there with our worst performances.

Are the team just not up for it?

Dobie has looked so much sharper that warr though.

Yeah, the game has livened up for sure

Dobie and Hastings making a massive difference to our speed of play

Matt Currie has looked good since he has come on as well.

Clean break for a good try

33-11 Scotland

BigGee wrote:Yeah, the game has livened up for sure

Dobie and Hastings making a massive difference to our speed of play

To be honest I'd put Hastings and Thompson ahead of Healy at the moment. If Healy's point of difference is territorial control and kicking I'm yet to see it.

Kyle Rowe doesn’t like passing

tigertattie wrote:Kyle Rowe doesn’t like passing

He's just upholding the Scottish fullback tradition!

The YC comes for Chile as well

More poor execution.

These players stick on a Scotland jersey and it seems to drain them of all the skills they show at club.

Another sharp backs move and Rowe scores his second

40-11 Scotland

tigertattie wrote:Kyle Rowe doesn’t like passing

And now we know why. He can’t

Good try, best of the evening I think!

What a tackle on Williamson

When we move the ball quickly, they don't get near us

45-11 Scotland

God I want to know what game Fraser brown has been watching, Scotland have been in chiles half for probably about 65 minutes and failed to score for about 40 of those, against a team ranked 16 places lower!

One to chalk off as a learning experience I think. I fear for our autumn!

Steyn cuts a good line to bring up 50 on FT

52-11 Scotland

But looks like we are getting a restart

11-52

Definitely flatters to deceive.

Subs changed the game, Healy was poor, Warr was poor, forwards were average but Patrick Harrison showed up well as did McBeth. Hastings definitely showed himself as a better back up than Healy.

Lots of homework before Uruguay but our recurring problem with execution is the theme of this season. Times like this remind me the set up could do with a shake up sooner rather than later.

We'll that is that

Far from a classic but Toonie will have learned a bit about a few of the players out there.

In credit

Dobie
Baylis
Brown
Johnson
Reed
Currie - who has looked very good
Harrison

Less impressive

Warr
Hurd
Healy
Rowe - who did score but also spooned a few

We will see another very different team again next week

BigGee wrote:We'll that is that

Far from a classic but Toonie will have learned a bit about a few of the players out there.

In credit

Dobie
Baylis
Brown
Johnson
Reed
Currie - who has looked very good
Harrison

Less impressive

Warr
Hurd
Healy
Rowe - who did score but also spooned a few

We will see another very different team again next week

Thought Hastings made a difference. I know chile would be starting to flag but he did way more than Healy

Don't be too down on the scotland squad. Thi9s team was full of inexperience and combos that had not played together. Its much more of a "b" team

I still saw nothing tho to make me think Hastings is an international 10. Too slow and dithers and gets caught in possession or gives hospital passes. We still have no real backup to Finn.

Hastings was not perfect for sure, but he was a light and day improvement on Ben Healy, who, as with Edinburgh, just could not get the back line moving.

It will be interesting to see how the respective FHs perform at the clubs this season as well.

Will Thompson challenge Healy at Edinburgh? On what we gave seen on this tour quite possibly, which would mean the decesion to move him over has been a good one.

How will the Hastings and Jordan duel pan out as well? Franco clearly likes Jordan and his physical style is quite a contest to Hastings, even if he lacks some of the finer parts of FH play, he certainly does not kick as well as Hastings, both from hand and off the tee and has the odd rush of blood to the head and a penchant for the naughty step at critical moments. He will be SQ though by the autumn and will surely be in the next Scotland squad as well.

You would imagine Toonie will be keeping a eye on the firm of Fergus Burke at Sarries as well!

As predicted, all of the non Scots based players heading home now, along with Sione Tuipolotu, who has stacked up some considerable gametime this season.

Everyone else is heading for Montevideo

Uruguay were absolutely gubbed by Argentina at the weekend so I suspect it'll be a similar challenge to Chile.

That was a bloody frustrating watch last night because at times we were so sloppy and very annoyingly poorly disciplined (we've said that lots of times!) and at times we looked capable. I'm not one of them YET but I can fully understand why some want a change in head coach just to give us better chance of success, I believe they'll get their wish by February/March next year unless we end in top 3 of 6Ns.

I also feel you peeps are being a bit harsh on Warr because he was giving us quick ball and his kicking was ok I'd say.

We'll 25 players and the 3 apprentices left in Montevideo. Ewan Johnson has been allowed to stay on and train with the squad by Oyonax, but he won't be able to play.

It should not be to difficult to pick the squad then, with only 1 LH to miss out. Hopefully we don't have any injuries at hooker as we have no spares!

Team maybe like this:

Sutherland
Ashman
Walker
Williamson
Cummings
Crosbie
Darge
Fagerson
Horne
Hastings
Rowe
McDowell
Jones
DVDM
Paterson

Bhatti
Harrison
Sebastian
Brown
Ritchie
Dobie
Healy
Currie

BigGee wrote:Hastings was not perfect for sure, but he was a light and day improvement on Ben Healy, who, as with Edinburgh, just could not get the back line moving.

It will be interesting to see how the respective FHs perform at the clubs this season as well.

Will Thompson challenge Healy at Edinburgh? On what we gave seen on this tour quite possibly, which would mean the decesion to move him over has been a good one.

Healy just isn’t particularly good in general. I know I sound like a broken record with some kind of vendetta against him, I honestly don't, I really want him to succeed for both Edinburgh and Scotland’s sake, but from seeing him all season for Edinburgh, I can confidently say he’s not good at any aspects of being a 10.

His ‘strength’ is supposed to be his territorial game with his boot, but he’s not able to do it. Without any pressure his kicking game is actually very good, but when the game is live, he kicking game is nonexistent. From hand he cannot get a backline moving and he’s not fast enough or savvy enough to break lines himself.

That one pass aside he struggled to create anything against a Chile side who we should be beating thoroughly and when Hastings came on you could see what a difference he made.

For Scotland, Healy should be 4th or 5th choice, behind Finn, Hastings, Jordan (when he qualifies) and Thomson (Finn obviously first choice, then arrange the others based on preference)

Part of Healy's regression may be exhaustion (ignoring Edinburgh's inability to develop 10s and centres). He has been training for almost two years straight. Played over 2,000 minutes in the last eight months and had the bitter disappointment of being an unused sub twice in the Six Nations (and just three minutes in his one appearance).

He needs a break and a chance to reset. Having Thompson and an older, wiser Cammy Scott to compete with and take some minutes next season may be the best thing for him.

Also BG, you are missing a sub (Ritchie?). Like the line-up though. The starters could take on a Wales or an Argentina and win without being a huge shock. Our depth has come on leaps and bounds

I'd love to agree with you, but he's not been good at any point during his time with Edinburgh. I get if it was an isolated event against Chile, then yeah tiredness etc, but he's been very very average since he took the field for Edinburgh.

He took a number of POTM awards early doors, but only because his kicking from tee is good, otherwise the rest of his game has been consistent, and not in a good way

Hazel Sapling wrote:

Also BG, you are missing a sub (Ritchie?). Like the line-up though. The starters could take on a Wales or an Argentina and win without being a huge shock. Our depth has come on leaps and bounds

We'll spotted Hazel

How could I have left JR out


You are right about our improved depth though, that is a decent team despite all the missing players

Realistically lads, it doesn't really matter who we put out against Uruguay; Argentina just demolished them 79-5. It'll be a comfortable win. Toonie could start with Dobie- Hastings and look to run the legs off Uruguay by half time and then let Healey have 40 minutes against a beaten side.
Personally I'd rank our options at 10;
Dancer
Haircut
Jordan
Thompson
Meatball
Tigertattie
GC's mildly racist uncle
Healey.

I watched highlights on YouTube last night and was amazed at how abysmal Uruguay defence was, they were giving Argentina lots of space in the area of the park where the centres should have been and the quick offloading of Argentina out to their wingers was impressive so we really need to run the ball out from the back and give the ball to Duhi as often as possible because he'll just out muscle the Uruguay defence and burrow over. I'd be very surprised of they were as poor again this weekend but we really ought to steamroller past them with ease, maybe another 40-50pt + difference to end the tour on a high.

Scotland team to face Uruguay at Estadio Charrúa , Montevideo, in the Skyscanner Americas tour on Saturday 27 July, kick-off 8pm (BST) – live on TNT Sports 2, BBC Scotland channel and BBC iPlayer (caps in brackets):



Rory Sutherland – Glasgow Warriors (32)
Ewan Ashman – Vice-Captain – Edinburgh Rugby (18)
Javan Sebastian – Edinburgh Rugby (9)
Max Williamson – Glasgow Warriors (3)
Scott Cummings – Glasgow Warriors (39)
Luke Crosbie – Edinburgh Rugby (10)
Rory Darge – Captain – Glasgow Warriors (21)
Matt Fagerson – Glasgow Warriors (46)
George Horne – Glasgow Warriors (31)
Ben Healy – Edinburgh Rugby (7)
Duhan van der Merwe – Edinburgh Rugby (40)
Stafford McDowall – Glasgow Warriors (4)
Huw Jones – Vice-Captain – Glasgow Warriors
Kyle Rowe – Glasgow Warriors (6)
Harry Paterson – Edinburgh Rugby (2)
Patrick Harrison – Edinburgh Rugby (1)
Pierre Schoeman – Edinburgh Rugby (33)
Murphy Walker – Glasgow Warriors (4)
Gregor Brown – Glasgow Warriors (2)
Jamie Ritchie – Edinburgh Rugby (51)
Jamie Dobie – Glasgow Warriors (5)
Adam Hastings – Glasgow Warriors (29)
Kyle Steyn – Glasgow Warriors (22)

I was not to far away, with just Healy over Hastings and a couple of different props.

Looks a good side and should be looking to put Uruguay away comfortably.

Let's see if Healy can get this backline moving and surely Duhan is going to break the Scottish try scoring record in this game!

He's certainly giving Healy plenty chances this tour!

I would have the Scotland 10s as

1) Dancer - the one and only
2)Jordan=Thompson Both still really to prove but IMO but both with huge potential;
3)Meatball Mr Steady - won't let you down
4)Haircut I just do not see it. He is like dancer on his worst day without the good bits. Can't make decisions at speed and gets caught in possession or shovels Poopie on
5)Healey Just an average pro

I think hastings is one of these players that looks great in the club game but just cannot cut it at international level

https://www.instagram.com/p/C96t9XOIDwU/?igsh=MWx0aTBwZnNraXF2Mg==

How's this for a photo! Greig, Cusiter, Blair and Lawson playing golf together.

Imagine how crap we would have been in that era if that lot hadn't played for Scotland!

I remember Blair Vs cusiter. It was about the only thing that made you feel good about the team selection, our incredible depth at scrum half! At least you knew it'd be played well out of the back of the ruck...

We've come a long way since then thankfully... Still remember that shlong break from our tryline against New Zealand, one highlight of a very limited reel!

The Cus has a Top 14 winners medal and was a Lions tourist, don’t forget. And even better, he has hair like mine. Nothing to be sniffed at for a Scottish player in one of the most goddawfully average eras
ever for test players.

So Scott Cummings drops out with illness and Gregor Brown gets another start.


I was under the impression that Ewan Johnson could not play, but he is on the bench. Let's see if he actually gets on the pitch

Uruguay manage to produce a pipe band and some charming kids to sing Flower of Scotland

Was very nice rendition

Lively start from Uruguay but nothing to show for it

Scotland score from a driving line out when they get their opportunity

7-0 Scotland

Uruguay look like they are tiring already

Their TH goes to the bin and Crosbie powers over

14-0 Scotland

DVD breaks the try scoring record

Then we are sloppy and gift them a try

19-7 Scotland

Uruguay getting back into this game and score again

19-14 Scotland

Two things come to mind:

Healey is very 'deliberate' when he has he ball. he does seem to be slightly slower than everyone else in a dark blue jersey

can you imagine how many tries Duhan would score in the URC if he was playing for Glasgow?