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The Grateful Eight: How the SRU reacted to the largest Scottish Lions contingent since 1989
By Sam Smith
The Scottish Rugby Union have reacted with unbridled joy at the number of its players named in the British and Irish Lions squad for South Africa.
Head coach Warren Gatland has infamously avoided Scots in his selections to date, but with eight making the plane in 2021, it's something of a red-letter day for the union.
First-time Lions include Edinburgh trio Hamish Watson, Duhan van der Merwe and Rory Sutherland and Glasgow Warriors’ Zander Fagerson and Ali Price.
As expected, Exeter's Stuart Hogg and Racing 92’s Finn Russell both get call-ups following previous tours, while Gloucester’s Chris Harris will is another first-time tourist.
There is also a strong Scottish influence in the coaching ticket with Gregor Townsend coaching attack, and Scotland's Welsh coach Steve Tandy, leading the defence.
“I am delighted eight Scotland players have been selected today in the British and Irish Lions squad," said Scottish Rugby’s Chief Executive Officer, Mark Dodson. "This is the biggest contingent that Scotland has had in the initial touring party since nine were named for the 1989 tour to Australia, which was captained by Finlay Calder.
“The competitiveness we have shown throughout the last two Six Nations Championship campaigns is now underlined by today’s announcement. It affirms we are producing players to compete alongside some of the best in the world and I warmly congratulate all the Scottish players, and the whole 37-man squad on their selection.”
Scottish Rugby’s Director of High Performance, Jim Mallinder, added: “I am incredibly excited to see all of these players selected in the 37-man squad for the 2021 British and Irish Lions tour. The experience that they and our coaches, Gregor Townsend and Steve Tandy, will gain from being on this tour is fantastic. I wish them all the best in the upcoming campaign in South Africa.”
The squad of 37 players will meet at a training camp in Jersey prior to their warm-up fixture against Japan at BT Murrayfield on June 26. They will then head out to South Africa where they will play eight matches. This will include three Test matches against the current world champion Springboks.
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Latest Comments
Warren, if you think you should stay on coaching Wales, you are beyond deluded. If you love Wales & Welsh rugby as much as you say you do (& I'm sure you probably do) you should resign immediately so this once proud & passionate rugby nation can rebuild without you. How many of your players will make the British & Irish Lions squad.?
It's time to walk the plank.!
Go to commentsYeah nar I pretty much agree with that sentiment, wasn't just about the lineout though.
Yeah, I think it's the future of SR, even TRC. Graham above just now posting about how good a night it was with a dbl header of ENGvSA and NZvFrance, and now I don't want to kick SA or Argentina out of TRC but it would be great if in this next of the woods 2 more top teams could come in to create more of these sort of nights (for rugby's appeal). Often Arg and SA and both travel here and you get those games but more often doesn't work out right.
Obviously a long way off but USA and Japan are the obvious two. First thing we need to do is get Eddie Jones kicked out of Japan so they can start improving again and then get a couple of US teams in SRP (even if one its just a US based and augmented Jaguares).
It will start off the whole conferences are crap debate again (which I will continue to argue vehemently against), but imagine a 6 team Pacific conference, Tokyo Sunwolves (drafted from Tokyo JRLO teams), Tokyo All Stars (made up of best remaining foreign players and overseas drafts), ALL Nihon (best of local non Tokyo based talent, inc China/Korea etc, with mainland Japan), a could of West Coast american franchises and perhaps a second self PI driven Hawai'i based team, or Jagaures. So I see a short NFL like 3 or 4 month comp as fitting best, maybe not even a full round, NZvAUSvPAC, all games taking place within a 6hr window. Model for NZ will definitely still require a competitive and funded NPC!
On the Crusaders, I liked last years ending with Grace on the bench (ovbiously form dependent but thats how it ended) and Lio-Willie at 8. I could have Blackadder trying to be a 7 but think balance will be used with him at 6 and Kellow as 7. Scott Barrett is an international 6 sized player. It is just NZ style/model that pushes him into the tight, I reckon he'd be a great loose player, and saders have Strange and Cahill as bigger players (plus that change could draw someone like Darry back). Same with Haig now, hes not grown yet but Barrett hight and been playing 6, now that the Highlanders have only chosen two locks he'll be playing lock, and that is going to change his growth trajectory massively, rather than seeing him grow like an International 6.
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