Finn Russell will move into Scotland’s midfield to accommodate his former under-study Adam Hastings as Scotland seek to develop a twin play-making facility in their last outing of the year.
After Hastings started the opening match of the autumn campaign when Russell was among the exiles who were unavailable for that match, the partnership was tried out in the closing stages of each of the subsequent matches against Fiji and South Africa after he was introduced as a late replacement in both of those matches.
He now returns, as one of eight players reintroduced to the starting line-up for Saturday’s meeting with Argentina, along with Blair Kinghorn, who comes in on the wing, with Jonny Gray and Hamish Watson the only forwards to retain their places following last weekend’s defeat by the Springboks.
Head coach Gregor Townsend noted that injuries had forced the coaches to consider different options to those they were looking at when the autumn series began, but the eye-catching way the pair combined to take Scotland past the half century mark against the Fijians may well have played its part.
“Adam playing so well for Glasgow this year has put him in a position to compete for that ten jersey,” Townsend contended.
“We want to see Adam to continue to develop and we want to give him opportunities to continue to develop. We believe this week Finn being outside him will help him. We also believe that combination can put Argentina under a lot of pressure. Both through their passing and kicking but also through their running threats.
“I believe it will be an exciting prospect for Adam to start his first game for Scotland at BT Murrayfield. He’ll have two strong communicators either side of him, someone who plays regularly at 10 on his shoulder and someone who has played a lot of matches for Scotland and captained Scotland on a number of occasions inside him.”
Townsend noted that Russell had first emerged as an inside centre at Glasgow Warriors after playing there outside Harry Leonard for the national under-20 side, then putting in some impressive performances outside Dunc Weir. Since Weir is back in the Scotland squad and has been regularly involved in squads with Russell at Glasgow as well, it seems reasonable to wonder why this has not been tried before, but Townsend reaffirmed that it was Hastings’ form that has forced the issue.
“Finn has always been in excellent form as a ten so we never looked that hard or moving him from there, but Adam has played really well this year. He is competing hard for that position,” he said. “We also have a couple of centres injured, Sam Johnson and Matt Scott, two guys who were in our initial squad. Peter Horne has done well in the three games and Alex Dunbar started the first one, carried well in the second one before going off in the second half. I am not sure if it would have happened if we had Matt Scott and Sam Johnston available. We would have given one of them an opportunity, but given Adam’s form we would like to give him a second start and we feel having Finn and Greig (Laidlaw) either side of him will help him a lot.”
For all the changes to the line-up, the cap counts of only Hastings, Kinghorn and flanker Jamie Ritchie have not yet reached double figures and if last weekend demonstrated that Scotland still lag behind the very best in the world, this encounter with the Pumas should illustrate whether the overall strength in depth is all that the management hopes it now is, since there are also eight differences from the team that set out against Fiji.
Clearly it is too much to expect a repeat of that rout against relatively under-prepared opposition but for all the credit that has been given to new coach Mario Ledesma for turning the Pumas around since Scotland thrashed them in Resistencia in the summer, they have won just two of their last 12 matches which suggests that if Scotland are closer to moving up a level in the world rankings than they were when they beat the Springboks eight year ago, another solid win should be expected by such an experienced group of players.
Failure to do so would change the domestic climate substantially heading into a World Cup year, but a management team that has clearly seen this autumn as an important opportunity to scrutinise options as minutely as possible, continues to contend that it recognises the need to prioritise winning matches.
“Every selection has an unknown quality about it, but every selection is about putting a team out there that we believe gives us the best chance of winning,” said Townsend.
“If this had been a Six Nations game it might not have been the selection we put out there, but if they go well it could be the selection we put out there for a Six Nations game. November does give us an opportunity to look at different things, but we’re looking at different things because we believe they’ll work.”
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