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Ford primed to make Scotland history
By RugbyPass
Ross Ford is set to make history on Saturday after being selected to face Fiji in what would be a record 110th appearance for Scotland.
The Edinburgh hooker is primed to overtake Chris Paterson as his country's most capped player when Gregor Townsend's men conclude their three-match tour in Suva.
Townsend oversaw a stunning 24-19 win over Australia last time out and makes 12 changes for this weekend's clash, with Nick Grigg handed a debut at centre.
"It's a great storyline that we have Nick making his international debut at the same time as Ross will make history and become the most capped Scot of all time," said Townsend.
"Ross has been an outstanding tourist, both on and off the field. This week he has been driving our standards and working as hard as usual to make sure we get our preparations right for what will be a very tough game."
Ford, 33, made his international debut against the Wallabies in 2004 and has featured in three World Cups, as well as the 2009 British and Irish Lions tour.
Scotland XV: Ruaridh Jackson; Damien Hoyland, Nick Grigg, Duncan Taylor, Tim Visser; Peter Horne, Henry Pyrgos; Alex Allan, Ross Ford, Willem Nel, Tim Swinson, Jonny Gray, John Barclay, John Hardie, Josh Strauss.
Replacements: Fraser Brown, Gordon Reid, Zander Fagerson, Ben Toolis, Hamish Watson, Ryan Wilson, Ali Price, Greig Tonks.
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Latest Comments
The England backs can't be that dumb, he has been playing on and off for the last couple of years. If they are too slow to keep up with him that's another matter.
He was the only thing stopping England from getting their arses handed to them in the Aussie game. If you can't fit a player with that skill set into an England team then they are stuffed.
Go to commentsSteve Borthwick appointment was misguided based on two flawed premises.
1. An overblown sense of the quality of the premiership rugby. The gap between the Premiership and Test rugby is enormous
2. England needed an English coach who understood English Rugby and it's traditional strengths.
SB won the premiership and was an England forward and did a great job with the Japanese forwards but neither of those qualify you as a tier 1 test manager.
Maybe Felix Jones and Aled Walter's departures are down to the fact that SB is a details man, which work at club level but at test level you need the manager to manage and let the coaches get on and do what they are employed for.
SB criticism of players is straight out of Eddie Jones playbook but his loyalty to keeping out of form players borne out of his perceived sense of betrayal as a player.
In all it doesn't stack up as the qualities needed to be a modern Test coach /Manager
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