Gregor Townsend has picked a 33-man squad for the upcoming Test matches against Canada, USA and Argentina. This will be the second summer tour of the Toony era and another chance to extend squad depth and take a look at players who might break through before the 2019 Rugby World Cup. Here’s the On Top Of The Moon summary of who’s in and who’s out since the final selection of the Six Nations.
The previous training squad was 38 strong so while 16 players drop out only 11 men are called up to travel as part of a smaller group. There are a few injuries and a some selections on form but at least half of the missing names are almost certainly about resting bodies with a busy year ahead.
Caps
- 6 uncapped players have been selected in the squad of 33. Gregor Townsend has already handed out 10 debuts during his time as Scotland coach.
- Another 13 men have been picked who have less than 10 caps each.
- Richie Gray (65) and Stuart Hogg (60) are the only players with over a half century of Test appearances.
Player numbers and game time
- 2 players are selected for the first time by Toony taking the total included in his Test squads so far to 70.
- The head coach has picked 17 Exiles, 28 Glasgow Warriors and 25 players from Edinburgh during his first year in charge.
- Only 14 of the 34 players who travelled for last summer’s series of matches return this time round.
- 11 players have featured in all of Townsend’s squads so far (Summer Tests 2017, Autumn Tests 2017, Six Nations 2018, Summer Tests 2018).
- 53 different players have seen game time in Gregor’s Tests so far – 21 from Glasgow, 16 from Edinburgh and 16 Exiles.
- Just 2 players have featured in every one of the 11 Tests that Toony has taken charge of – John Barclay and Ali Price. JB is the only one to start all 11 but his streak will end as he’s rested this summer.
Age
- The average age of the squad is 25.8 (the average for the initial Six Nations selection was 27.1).
- The backs are slightly older than the forwards, averaging 26.1 and 25.6 respectively.
- Ruaridh Jackson and Tim Swinson are the only over 30s in the group.
- Matt Fagerson is the youngest member of the squad. He won’t turn 20 until after the tour is over.
- There are 10 players who are 23 or younger in the summer selection.
Scoring
- The squad have combined for 48 Test tries.
- 10 have been scored by forwards, 38 by the backs.
- Stuart McInally and Richie Gray are the top scorers in the pack with 3 tries each.
- Stuart Hogg (18) has provided more than a third of the squad’s total try-scoring ouput.
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