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Scotland make eight changes for Wallabies Test
By Peter Thompson
Jonny Gray and Hamish Watson are back in the Scotland side to face Australia on Saturday, while Lee Jones also gets his chance after Gregor Townsend opted to make eight changes.
Lock Gray and back-row Watson will run out from the start against the Wallabies in Sydney as Townsend fields a new back three and front row following the win over Italy.
Jones comes in on the wing in place of Damien Hoyland five years after winning the last of his four caps.
Townsend said: "Australia are one of the best teams in the world, so this will be a much tougher challenge than our game last week. The Wallabies DNA is about moving the ball and they have always been one of the best attacking teams in the game.
"It's a game that will challenge our players in defence but we'll also have to be very accurate in attack and aim to out-work our opposition on Saturday. Playing in the afternoon will be fantastic, you don't often get the chance to do that in the southern hemisphere, so we can't wait to get out there and play.
"There are a few changes this week, as we planned to give a number of our squad the opportunity to play in the first two games of tour.
"It was great that we had a successful hit out against Italy with a few players getting valuable game time after returning from injury.
"We firmly believe that this 23-man squad can deliver on Saturday. It's important that we take the game to Australia right from the start and are relentless in attack and defence for 80 minutes."
Scotland team to play Australia: Greig Tonks, Lee Jones, Alex Dunbar, Duncan Taylor, Rory Hughes, Finn Russell, Ali Price; Gordon Reid, Fraser Brown, Zander Fagerson, Ben Toolis, Jonny Gray, John Barclay, Hamish Watson, Ryan Wilson.
Replacements: Ross Ford, Allan Dell, Willem Nel, Tim Swinson, Josh Strauss, Henry Pyrgos, Ruaridh Jackson, Matt Scott.
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There is nothing particularly significant about Ireland in this regard compared to other Tier 1 nations. To look at 'strategy' for illegal play its best to see what teams push boundaries with new laws. SA have milked two tries at ruck block downs. The strategy is to charge the first few before the ball is out at about 4 seconds but pull out and put up hands in reigned apology. The referees usually allow the scum half to clear without awarding a penalty in this scenario. The problem with that being that the scrumhalf is now taking over 5 seconds through no fault of his own. Having achieved a few slow balls > 5s , the SA forward can now pick a scrum to charge dead on 5s. Now if the scrum half waits, he will concede a penalty, as we saw against Scotland. With the new rule in place, any early charge should result in an immediate penalty.
SA also got an offside block against England which was pivotal again after a couple of 'apologetic' offside aborted charges forcing England to clear slowly.
Go to commentsYep, you're not the sharpest tool in the shed are you?
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