A developmental squad has been named for Scotland’s A fixture against England and games in Romania and Georgia this summer. That has meant significant changes from the 35-man selection announced ahead of the Six Nations a few months back.
There are 24 players in and 22 players out from that previous squad. Of those brought in 8 were late call-ups for at least part of the Six Nations; 11 have never previously been involved; and 5 are recalled after various lengths of absence.
- Forwards Cornell Du Preez, Nick Haining, Rob Harley, Ally Miller, D’arcy Rae and Ryan Wilson as well as backs Sam Johnson and George Taylor were also involved for part of the Six Nations but are not included this time round.
Caps
- 17 uncapped players have been selected in the squad of 37.
- Forwards (10) – Ewan Ashman, Nick Auterac, Josh Bayliss, Luke Crosbie, Rory Darge, Cameron Henderson, Jamie Hodgson, Robin Hislop, Kiran McDonald and Javan Sebastian.
- Backs (7) – Jack Blain, Jamie Dobie, Cole Forbes, Rufus McLean, Charlie Shiel, Ross Thompson and Sione Tuipulotu.
- Since Gregor Townsend became head coach following the 2017 Six Nations there have been 35 Test debuts for the men’s national side.
- Just 4 players in the squad made their Scotland debuts prior to Toony taking over (Simon Berghan, Magnus Bradbury, Damien Hoyland and Matt Scott).
- Another 8 men have been picked who have won fewer than 10 caps each.
- There are only 2 players in the squad with more than 30 caps to their name – Matt Scott (39) and Simon Berghan (31).
Player numbers and game time
- The new faces bring the total included in Scotland men’s squads during the Townsend era to 115.
- The coaches have picked 15 Glasgow Warriors, 12 Exiles and 10 players from Edinburgh.
- The absence of Ali Price on Lions’ duty means that there is no one in the current squad who has played some part in each of the previous series in the Townsend era.
- 84 different players have seen game time in the 45 Tests since Summer 2017.
- No one has featured in every Test since the start of the Townsend era. Ali Price (37 games) has made the most appearances.
Age
- The average age of the squad is 25.3 – more than 2 years younger than the Six Nations’ selection (27.5).
- The backs’ average age is 24.6 while for the forwards it is 25.8 (Six Nations – 27.4 for backs and 27.6 for the forwards).
- There are 3 players over the age of 30 with Matt Scott the eldest at 30.7. The other ‘veterans’ are Simon Berghan (30.5) and David Cherry (30.4). There were 10 over 30s in the Six Nations’ squad.
- There are 6 players who will be competing to become the first Scotland men’s cap born in the 2000s. Ewan Ashman, Jack Blain, Rory Darge, Cameron Henderson and Rufus McLean were born in the year 2000. Jamie Dobie was born in 2001!
Scoring
- The squad have combined for 40 Test tries.
- 15 have been scored by forwards, 25 by the backs.
- George Turner is the top scorer in the pack with 6 tries.
- Blair Kinghorn (8) has the most tries among the backs.
- Only Stuart McInally (10), Sean Maitland (10) and Darcy Graham (9) have scored more tries in the Townsend era than Kinghorn.
And Finally
A best guess at how the Depth Chart for the current squad stands ahead of this summer’s action kicking off:
On Top Of The Moon 