The Scotsman Rugby Show - Scotland team announcement - video Dailymotion

The Scotsman

Graham Bean and Mark Atkinson discuss the Scotland team to face Italy.

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00:00Good afternoon and welcome to this episode of the Scotsman Rugby Show. I'm Mark Atkinson,

00:06Sports Editor, joined by our Chief Rugby Writer, Graeme Bean, who is about to go into the Scotland

00:11Press Conference after Gregor Townsend named his first team for the 2025 Six Nations. Graeme,

00:17it's Italy at Murrayfield on Saturday. I'd say probably one or two eye-catching things

00:26in the team. Dave Cherry, the return of Dave Cherry at Hooker, probably the biggest surprise

00:31I would say in the team. Would you agree with that? Yes, I think that's fair to say. Yeah,

00:35he's not played for Scotland for a while. It was a bit of a surprise when he was named in the

00:40initial Six Nations squad, but he has been in decent form for Edinburgh, particularly that

00:46last 1872 cup match where Edinburgh beat Glasgow at Murrayfield. He played very well that day

00:53and he made it clear after the match. Actually, we spoke to him after the game and he made it

00:56clear he hadn't given up on his international ambitions and he was desperate to get back

01:00involved. He was quite open about that and it's come to pass and here he is starting against

01:06Italy this weekend. Yeah, he gets the nod over Ewan Ashman, which I think is a surprise.

01:14Probably less of a surprise as a replacement for the stricken captain, Sione Cioppolato. Of course,

01:20he's missing the whole tournament due to a pectoral injury and Stafford MacDowell,

01:24his Glasgow Warriors team-mate, will partner Hugh Jones at centre. Was that a no-brainer

01:31call for Gregor Townsend, do you think, Graeme? Was there potential for other options there?

01:35He did have options. He did have options. I think Stafford was always the favourite

01:39star at 12. He's got a good connection with Hugh Jones. They've played together a lot for Glasgow,

01:44but there's another Glasgow player, Tom Jordan, who could have slotted in at 12. He plays more

01:49often at 10 for Glasgow, but he's played at 12 as well. He's also played at 15 for Scotland too,

01:55and I think that kind of versatility perhaps worked against him a little bit, as much as

02:00he's a great guy to have on the bench because he can cover so many positions in the back line.

02:04But I think Stafford was always out front for this one. Maybe a more orthodox 12,

02:10big, powerful ball carrier. Played well in the Six Nations last season when he came in

02:17for the final match against Ireland with Tupelo who was injured and did a good job that day.

02:22I think that's probably shaped Gregor Townsend's thinking on this one.

02:27Indeed. One man who's also missing is Scott Cummings at Loch. He's been a regular for Scotland

02:32for some time now. His replacement, though, is somebody who's been playing very well, albeit

02:38over in France, in Jonny Gray.

02:41Yeah, yeah. It's a welcome return for Jonny Gray because he's not played for Scotland since the

02:46Six Nations two years ago. He's had a pretty terrible time of it with his knee problem,

02:51and he left Exeter and took a bit of time out from the game, and then he signed for Bordeaux.

02:58He's had a great start to the season there, top of the top 14, also top of their Champions Cup

03:05group. So he made a really impressive start. Gregor Townsend wanted to call off in the autumn,

03:11but Gray and his club Bordeaux decided to be better served. Staying in France,

03:18playing for the club, resting, but now he gets his chance. I mean, the only slight concern around

03:23Jonny Gray is that he's not played for Bordeaux since the 14th of December. He had an ankle

03:27issue. So I think Teysa would have had a bit more rugby under his belt, but he's going to start.

03:36I think it's a case of knees must as well, because without Scott Cummings, Scotland do lack

03:41a little bit of experience to go alongside Grant Gilchrist in there.

03:44Agreed, agreed. The other, not necessarily a controversial call by any stretch of the

03:50imagination, but eye-catching nonetheless, is that in the back row, widely deemed as one of

03:55Scotland's most competitive areas, Jamie Ritchie starts ahead of Jack Dempsey. He's in the back

04:02three alongside Rory Darge and Matt Fagerson. Graeme, what do you think the reasoning is behind

04:08Jamie Ritchie getting a nod? Well, I think he's been playing well, first and foremost. He's

04:16been a very experienced Scotland player and former captain, of course, never let Scotland down.

04:20I also think like Jack Dempsey, he's not played a lot of rugby. He got injured against South Africa

04:27in the autumn. He's only played one match for Glasgow since the Harlequins game in Europe.

04:34He's perhaps a little bit rusty. So Matt Fagerson goes to number eight

04:38and that opens the door for Jamie Ritchie to come in at six, with Darge at seven.

04:44All in all, pretty strong Scotland team.

04:46It is, yeah, it is. Definitely, definitely. 2-2 is a huge loss, obviously, but it's still a strong team.

04:54It should be too strong for Italy, let's be honest about this, but we saw what happened last year.

05:01So it's a great chance for Scotland to start, two home games, Italy first and Ireland

05:08and build a bit of momentum going into this Irish game. But yeah, I mean, it's a strong Scotland

05:12team, definitely. Fingers crossed it's strong enough to get the job done. I'm Murray Field.

05:17Graeme will let you go and speak to bigger Townsend. We'll have all the reaction

05:19and analysis on the Scotsman website and in print today and tomorrow. For now, thanks for joining us.

The Scotsman Rugby Show - Scotland team announcement

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