Emboldened by his encouraging autumn, Scotland head coach Vern Cotter has veered the national team’s course even more directly to youth and pace as he made sweeping changes to his 32-strong squad for the forthcoming RBS 6 Nations.
Not content with omitting former captain and all-round good guy Kelly Brown in November, Cotter showed a similar lack of sentimentality as he left out fan favourites like Chris Cusiter and Johnnie Beattie, and veterans like Scott Lawson this time. Brown got no recall despite the clamour and neither did John Barclay, even though Scotland seem mighty thin at open side flanker.
Instead, Cotter gave as blatant an indication as he could about where he’s taking the team by including Hugh Blake, a 22-year-old on trial with Edinburgh who hasn’t even played for the capital club yet, being restricted to a few starts for Melrose.
The former New Zealand Under-20 player is Scottish qualified via his grandfather, and he ticks Cotter’s boxes, notably the ones alongside youth, speed and size.
Three other Edinburgh players are in for the first time, and at least they have actually played for the club. Sam Hidalgo-Clyne gets the nod ahead of Cusiter, lock Ben Toolis ahead of Tim Swinson, and open-side Hamish Watson seems to be ahead of Brown, Barclay and Roddy Grant who is keeping him from starting for Edinburgh at the moment in the national coach’s pecking order.
Clearing out the dead wood with the abandon Cotter does means you sometimes cut away some good wood as well, and there’s a fair chance the broad sweep of his axe may have taken out some still valuable talent.
But Cotter is typically forthright and decisive, and he thinks that Blake is as well.
“He’s very fast, skilful, and he gives us something that we don’t have,” said the coach, who thinks that the 22-year-old from Otago can play all over the back row.
“He has made the choice to come over here. He could have stayed comfortably over in New Zealand and worked his way up over there, but he is proud of his Scottish heritage and put his hand up to be involved.”
But does he actually have a chance of playing or are they just assessing him in the squad? His abilities mean it’s the former, said Cotter.
“He has a skillset we just don’t have,” continued the coach. “He is very quick across the ground, equally tough attacking as defending. He gets three or four turnovers per game on average, he is capable of changing the course of a match.
“Why him instead of John (Barclay)? Because he offers another type of profile, he gives us a bit more speed, more turnovers and the way we want the team to head we need speed, we need initiative, we need to be able to tackle, to be able to change the course of games.
“Hamish (Watson) is very similar. John is in a similar situation to Roddy Grant. They are both playing well and we know what they offer.
“I spoke to Kelly, he was close. We’ll see how things play out in the championship.”
Beattie meanwhile had not been playing to his highest standards in a losing team, continued the coach. He does intend to add a back row forward as the championship progresses, but that would seem likely to be Adam Ashe, who was capped in the summer without playing for a pro team as Blake is now in line to do. The 22-year-old No 8 should be fit in the third week. Rob Harley should be fit for the first game in Paris on February 7.
Hidalgo-Clyne is effectively a double of Greig Laidlaw who he will back up with Henry Pyrgos, while Ben Toolis seems unlikely to shift the Gray brothers from the second row but is, according to the stats, “the best ball-carrying and line-breaking lock we have” added Cotter.
Jon Welsh, who was previously ignored because he wasn’t considered to do enough about the park, is “Sunday cover” for Euan Murray (the second game against Wales is a Sunday game), although he’s arguably been outplaying the veteran for Glasgow at tight-head.
Ryan Grant and Ryan Wilson have been omitted until their ongoing court trial for an alleged assault reaches a conclusion. “They have a lot on their plate at the moment,” said the coach.
The selections may raise a few eyebrows not just in Scotland in Wales they can’t think of a good reason by the Scarlets’ Barclay isn’t getting picked but Cotter is certain of his philosophy.
“We’re comfortable (with the selection),” he said. “We want to take a pragmatic approach, but we want to look at changing our profile, the way we play as well.
““We want to build on some of the good things during the Autumn Tests. A nucleus of the team is there, and we’ve added some great talent and some enthusiastic players who have been performing well for their clubs.
“We’ve got a very positive group that want to do well. They will make mistakes, because that’s part of the game, but there’s such a genuine desire to do well that hopefully we’ll be able to put teams in trouble.
“All these teams in the championship bar Italy consider us as four points. We’re going to try and get a lot more out of those games.”
FORWARDS: Hugh Blake (Edinburgh Rugby), Fraser Brown (Glasgow Warriors), Blair Cowan, Geoff Cross (both London Irish), David Denton, Alasdair Dickinson (Edinburgh Rugby), Jonny Gray (Glasgow Warriors), Richie Gray (Castres), Ross Ford (Edinburgh Rugby), Jim Hamilton (Saracens), Rob Harley, Euan Murray, Gordon Reid (all Glasgow Warriors), Alasdair Strokosch (Perpignan), Ben Toolis, Hamish Watson (both Edinburgh Rugby), Jon Welsh (Glasgow Warriors).
BACKS: Mark Bennett (Glasgow Warriors), Sam Hidalgo-Clyne (Edinburgh Rugby), Alex Dunbar, (Glasgow Warriors) Dougie Fife (Edinburgh Rugby), Stuart Hogg, Peter Horne (both Glasgow Warriors) Greig Laidlaw CAPTAIN (Gloucester), Sean Lamont, Sean Maitland, Henry Pyrgos, Finn Russell (all Glasgow Warriors), Matt Scott (Edinburgh Rugby), Tommy Seymour (Glasgow Warriors), Greig Tonks, Tim Visser (both Edinburgh Rugby).
Unavailable through injury: Adam Ashe (neck), Chris Fusaro (ankle), Grant Gilchrist (arm), Tyrone Holmes (face), Ruaridh Jackson (knee), Duncan Taylor (hamstring), Duncan Weir (arm).