Australia v Scotland, 17 June

          
AUSTRALIA v SCOTLAND  
17 June 2017
15:00 AEST (UTC+10)
Allianz Stadium, Sydney

Live on Sky

Referee: Wayne Barnes (England)
ARs: [tbc]
TMO: [tbc]

A. Head to Head

30 Played 30
21 Won 9
0 Drawn 0
9 Lost 21
729 Points 386 

B. Recent Form

12 November 2016
Murrayfield, Edinburgh
22 – 23 to Australia

18 October 2015 
Twickenham
35-34 to Australia

23 November 2013
Murrayfield, Edinburgh
15 – 21 to Australia

5 June 2012
Hunter Stadium, Newcastle
6 – 9 to Scotland

21 November 2009
Murrayfield, Edinburgh
9 – 8 to Scotland

C. TEAMS:

AUSTRALIA

Israel Folau; Dane Haylett-Petty, Tevita Kuridrani, Karmichael Hunt, Eto Nabuli; Bernard Foley, Will Genia; Tom Robertson, Tatafu Polota-Nau, Allan Alaalatoa; Sam Carter, Adam Coleman; Ned Hanigan, Michael Hooper (capt), Scott Higginbotham.

Bench to be announced.

SCOTLAND 

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 (capt), Hamish Watson, Ryan Wilson.

Replacements: Ross Ford, Allan Dell, WP Nel, Tim Swinson, Josh Strauss, Henry Pyrgos, Ruaridh Jackson, Matt Scott.

It would be nice to see the Mish and Gray Jr come into the team. Will Hardy be fit?

If not I'd possibly go with a backrow of:

6. Barclay 7. Mish 8. Bradbury

In an attempt to inject a bit of tempo. It might have been the heat but I felt Strauss was quite ineffective, especially compared to the powerful carrying of Dell, Ford and Toolis.

I'd leave the backs unchanged, Scott and Dunbar played well together and Duncan Taylor was marvellous.

My concern with Super Duncy is where does he fit in a full strength backline? IMO he's probably too good to be warming the bench.

In the backs my main concern is Alex Dunbar. I feel he has been playing within himself for most of the season, or the part of it where he wasn't injured. His performance yesterday was pretty much, "solid, no mistakes, reliable" rather than anything to get excited about. He is beginning to remind me of Frodo in that respect. (Mind you a 9-13 of Frodo-Dancer-Dunbar-Huw Jones would have our ECG's in a perfect sinewave). My answer to RDW's question is
9-Aldi Price
10-Dancer
11-Tennessee Tam
12- SIDESHOW BOB
13- Huw Jones
14- Tackling Tim
15- Hoggie

The problem for Toonie next week is that he can't play Sideshow Bob at 12 because that would mean Jackson, Hughes (Rozza not Huw) or Furra Linee against the Criminal Element.

Jackson...too slow, not enough experience at 15.
Rozza... too much the callow youth, except, he has been "the coming man" for some time now. So, will he ever arrive?
Furra Linee... will probably be on the bench covering 10/12, unless Dancer is off learning how to play Warrenball. (Just hold these tacklebags till Wednesday night then sit on the bench for 80 minutes, like a good boy.)

Which only leaves Sideshow to cover 15 and Dunbar at 12.
So, the Tombola will probably  give us 12-Horne, 13- Dunbar.

Back row,
6 Hardie
7 Hamish
8 Batman
If the Wallabies insist on playing two 7's Toonie will play three.

jimbopip wrote:In the backs my main concern is Alex Dunbar. I feel he has been playing within himself for most of the season, or the part of it where he wasn't injured. His performance yesterday was pretty much, "solid, no mistakes, reliable" rather than anything to get excited about. He is beginning to remind me of Frodo in that respect. (Mind you a 9-13 of Frodo-Dancer-Dunbar-Huw Jones would have our ECG's in a perfect sinewave). My answer to RDW's question is
9-Aldi Price
10-Dancer
11-Tennessee Tam
12- SIDESHOW BOB
13- Huw Jones
14- Tackling Tim
15- Hoggie

The problem for Toonie next week is that he can't play Sideshow Bob at 12 because that would mean Jackson, Hughes (Rozza not Huw) or Furra Linee against the Criminal Element.

Jackson...too slow, not enough experience at 15.
Rozza... too much the callow youth, except, he has been "the coming man" for some time now. So, will he ever arrive?
Furra Linee... will probably be on the bench covering 10/12, unless Dancer is off learning how to play Warrenball. (Just hold these tacklebags till Wednesday night then sit on the bench for 80 minutes, like a good boy.)

Which only leaves Sideshow to cover 15 and Dunbar at 12.
So, the Tombola will probably  give us 12-Horne, 13- Dunbar.

Back row,
6 Hardie
7 Hamish
8 Batman
If the Wallabies insist on playing two 7's Toonie will play three.

You didn't did you?

Who didn't?
Didn't what?
As you know, I'm all for Empsonian levels of ambiguity but you're comments is as clear as one of Theresa May's policy statements.

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:

jimbopip wrote:In the backs my main concern is Alex Dunbar. I feel he has been playing within himself for most of the season, or the part of it where he wasn't injured. His performance yesterday was pretty much, "solid, no mistakes, reliable" rather than anything to get excited about. He is beginning to remind me of Frodo in that respect. (Mind you a 9-13 of Frodo-Dancer-Dunbar-Huw Jones would have our ECG's in a perfect sinewave). My answer to RDW's question is
9-Aldi Price
10-Dancer
11-Tennessee Tam
12- SIDESHOW BOB
13- Huw Jones
14- Tackling Tim
15- Hoggie

The problem for Toonie next week is that he can't play Sideshow Bob at 12 because that would mean Jackson, Hughes (Rozza not Huw) or Furra Linee against the Criminal Element.

Jackson...too slow, not enough experience at 15.
Rozza... too much the callow youth, except, he has been "the coming man" for some time now. So, will he ever arrive?
Furra Linee... will probably be on the bench covering 10/12, unless Dancer is off learning how to play Warrenball. (Just hold these tacklebags till Wednesday night then sit on the bench for 80 minutes, like a good boy.)

Which only leaves Sideshow to cover 15 and Dunbar at 12.
So, the Tombola will probably  give us 12-Horne, 13- Dunbar.

Back row,
6 Hardie
7 Hamish
8 Batman
If the Wallabies insist on playing two 7's Toonie will play three.

You didn't did you?

I'm so confused. What question?

Tom English is suggesting that Townsend might go full tombola and put out a backline consisting of

10 Horne
12 Dunbar
13 Taylor
15 Russell

I hope he doesn't because Russell is our first choice 10 and needs to stay there, and our fullback resources aren't that desperate that we need to move our best back away from his position.

Also Horne looked a bit lost when he came on at 10, and once again played like a centre filling in (which he sort of is). He's a good option at club level at 10 but he's surely not the long term answer at backup to Russell.

RDW_Scotland wrote:Tom English is suggesting that Townsend might go full tombola and put out a backline consisting of

10 Horne
12 Dunbar
13 Taylor
15 Russell

I hope he doesn't because Russell is our first choice 10 and needs to stay there, and our fullback resources aren't that desperate that we need to move our best back away from his position.

Also Horne looked a bit lost when he came on at 10, and once again played like a centre filling in (which he sort of is).  He's a good option at club level at 10 but he's surely not the long term answer at backup to Russell.

I really hope he doesn't either, not if we want any chance of beating the Wallabies. I though Russell was sublime at the weekend, some of his passing in that first 5 minutes caused the Itlaians no end of trouble, not to mention his two assists. He, more than any other player, is cruical to how Scotland play, and I have no idea why Toonie would even consider moving him.

I think we will give Oz a really good game this weekend, here's the team I would like to see.

Dell
Brown
Nel
Gray
Toolis
Barclay
Watson
Strauss
Price
Russell
Visser
Dunbar (Agree with Jim, has had a pretty poor season)
Scott
Hoyland
Taylor

Reid
Ford
Fagerson
Swinson
Bradbury
Pyrgos
Horne
Hughes

RDW_Scotland wrote:

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:

jimbopip wrote:In the backs my main concern is Alex Dunbar. I feel he has been playing within himself for most of the season, or the part of it where he wasn't injured. His performance yesterday was pretty much, "solid, no mistakes, reliable" rather than anything to get excited about. He is beginning to remind me of Frodo in that respect. (Mind you a 9-13 of Frodo-Dancer-Dunbar-Huw Jones would have our ECG's in a perfect sinewave). My answer to RDW's question is
9-Aldi Price
10-Dancer
11-Tennessee Tam
12- SIDESHOW BOB
13- Huw Jones
14- Tackling Tim
15- Hoggie

The problem for Toonie next week is that he can't play Sideshow Bob at 12 because that would mean Jackson, Hughes (Rozza not Huw) or Furra Linee against the Criminal Element.

Jackson...too slow, not enough experience at 15.
Rozza... too much the callow youth, except, he has been "the coming man" for some time now. So, will he ever arrive?
Furra Linee... will probably be on the bench covering 10/12, unless Dancer is off learning how to play Warrenball. (Just hold these tacklebags till Wednesday night then sit on the bench for 80 minutes, like a good boy.)

Which only leaves Sideshow to cover 15 and Dunbar at 12.
So, the Tombola will probably  give us 12-Horne, 13- Dunbar.

Back row,
6 Hardie
7 Hamish
8 Batman
If the Wallabies insist on playing two 7's Toonie will play three.

You didn't did you?

I'm so confused.  What question?

I asked where does super duncy fit into the scotland setup if our backline is at full strength.

Jimbo said :

jimbopip wrote:In the backs my main concern is Alex Dunbar. I feel he has been playing within himself for most of the season, or the part of it where he wasn't injured. His performance yesterday was pretty much, "solid, no mistakes, reliable" rather than anything to get excited about. He is beginning to remind me of Frodo in that respect. (Mind you a 9-13 of Frodo-Dancer-Dunbar-Huw Jones would have our ECG's in a perfect sinewave). My answer to RDW's question is

I was not only compared to a ponce winger, but also compared to the "administrator of this facility".

Jeez keep up losers.

my two cents

Same front row combos as vs Italy
Icckle Jonny to start alongside Toolis with Swinson moving to the bench.
Capt Barcs at 6, Hammy starting at 7, Strauss to be given another crack at 8

Same backline

As tiny Tim covers 6, have Hardie on the bench if he shakes off his injury. If he doesn't then I'd have Bradbury in there.

Strauss is on notice in my opinion. I know the conditions were difficult but Barclay, Toolis and Ford managed to make big carries in the same conditions. I just feel that international rugby is just a step too fast for Strauss who seems to be slower than everyone else.

Where I am struggling is I don't know if we should do a 6/2 or 5/3 split. Had no Maits been playing I'd have gone with the 6/2 with the talented Duncan starting in the centre with no Maits at 15 and either Dunbar or Scott on the bench.

I'm not sure if this is the game for Strauss - it is going to be quick and I'm not sure if he'll be able to keep up with the tempo, especially given his lack of game time of late

I'd maybe go with a dynamic back row of

6 Bradbury
7 Watson
8 Barclay

or even

6 Barclay
7 Watson
8 Wilson

I wouldn't worry about the forwards - I would worry about the backs.

Folau and Speight were amazing and this Karmichael Hunt feller looks harder than nail pie at 12.

Please can I have RDW's permission to refer to him on these threads as a KHunt?

Incidentally, Big Naka and the original Weegie From Fiji also had very good games against Australia and we need to watch out for them in the third game.

Well to be fair, it is his name.

Shall we call him Hard KHunt?

Defensively I'm not worried about the centres as Dunbar and Scott will do fine. Where I am worried though is the wings. Visser has been going back into flap mode and Hoyland isn't exactly the worlds greatest defender.

tigertattie wrote:Well to be fair, it is his name.

Shall we call him Hard KHunt?

Defensively I'm not worried about the centres as Dunbar and Scott will do fine. Where I am worried though is the wings. Visser has been going back into flap mode and Hoyland isn't exactly the worlds greatest defender.

Another reason to keep Taylor at 15 - the thought of Jackson or Russell being the last line of defence (especially Jackson) isn't overly inspiring.

George Carlin wrote:I wouldn't worry about the forwards - I would worry about the backs.

Folau and Speight were amazing and this Karmichael Hunt feller looks harder than nail pie at 12.

Please can I have RDW's permission to refer to him on these threads as a KHunt?

His name is K Hunt so I don't see why not! Poor fella.

That reminds me - had a good giggle to myself during the Italy game as I thought one of their subs was called Brown Stain. Turns out it was just the commentator pronouncing Abraham Steyn in a strange way.

Is he not the bloke that dropped Pyrgos?

RuggerRadge, please oh please accept my grovelling apology... my bad, I misread and thought that Admin Boy had asked where we Toonie will play Sideshow Bob when everyone is fit. How could I mix up the two of you? Admin Boy is a Luvvie, and you are a....
Actually, you're nothing like each other.Even if you both think of Wee Duncy whenever anyone refers to "super Duncy".

So Mr Chinhook scored as many tries on Saturday as the combined might of The British and Irish Lions have done in three games.

RDW_Scotland wrote:

George Carlin wrote:I wouldn't worry about the forwards - I would worry about the backs.

Folau and Speight were amazing and this Karmichael Hunt feller looks harder than nail pie at 12.

Please can I have RDW's permission to refer to him on these threads as a KHunt?

His name is K Hunt so I don't see why not! Poor fella.

That reminds me - had a good giggle to myself during the Italy game as I thought one of their subs was called Brown Stain. Turns out it was just the commentator pronouncing Abraham Steyn in a strange way.

Is he not the bloke that dropped Pyrgos?

Well they do shorten the first name to Braam I think.

My favourite still has to be the first time I saw Ofisa Treviranus on TV. It was a 7s competition with Nigel Starmer-Smith commentating. At first he pronounced the surname with a pause in the middle - so Trevor Anus - before he realised what that sounded like, so for the rest of the game just called him Trevor. Next game he tried all sorts of weird and wonderful pronunciations including Tray Virannus and just Trevor.

Sorry but you simply will not beat the name I came across on Facebook!

Ramdit Bawdeep

Can't see Scotland beating Australia in Australia. I think Australia will win comfortably.

international198 wrote:Can't see Scotland beating Australia in Australia. I think Australia will win comfortably.

Well the last time we played Australia in Australia we won, and the last 2 games between us have been decided by 1 point. Thanks for your opinion though.

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:

international198 wrote:Can't see Scotland beating Australia in Australia. I think Australia will win comfortably.

Well the last time we played Australia in Australia we won, and the last 2 games between us have been decided by 1 point. Thanks for your opinion though.

Sorry I didn't realise that.

Australia will certainly be favourites and I expect they will win by a score or two but I think we will be competitive and it won't be an overwhelming shock if we did win (but still unlikely).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/18324263

Andy Robinson was in charge and we were absolutely mince back then, however our backrow of Rennie Barclay and Strockosch absolutely terrorized the breakdown.

It was a very tight affair in what could only be described as a monsoon.

However Scotland now are far better than we were back then. I genuinly believe we have the players, gameplan and team to beat Australia. Really hoping to see Gray and "The Mish" back in for this game.

Remember Radge that game apparently doesn't count because it was raining and Scotland only ever beat good teams in the rain!

RDW_Scotland wrote:Remember Radge that game apparently doesn't count because it was raining and Scotland only ever beat good teams in the rain!

ahhhh my mistake

Better check the forecast for the 17th... hopefully there will be sunny blue skies.
We had a massive deluge of rain last week, around 200mm in 3 days. Still, never discount another hurricane or some other violent weather event.

The scoreline for the Fiji match was disappointing. They went to sleep (our guys not theirs) in the last 20 mins. Can't afford to do that against Scotland... especially if the scores are close.

The Loaded Dog wrote:Better check the forecast for the 17th... hopefully there will be sunny blue skies.
We had a massive deluge of rain last week, around 200mm in 3 days. Still, never discount another hurricane or some other violent weather event.

The scoreline for the Fiji match was disappointing. They went to sleep (our guys not theirs) in the last 20 mins. Can't afford to do that against Scotland... especially if the scores are close.

Yeah I think most Scots will be hoping for a sunny skies too. Gone are the days where we want a mud bath. Our Strength lies from 6 to 16 as opposed 1 to 10 as it has in the days of yesteryear.

The last 2 games between Scotland and Oz have been immense end to end stuff with some brilliant tries. I'm hoping that will continue this weekend.

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:

The Loaded Dog wrote:Better check the forecast for the 17th... hopefully there will be sunny blue skies.
We had a massive deluge of rain last week, around 200mm in 3 days. Still, never discount another hurricane or some other violent weather event.

The scoreline for the Fiji match was disappointing. They went to sleep (our guys not theirs) in the last 20 mins. Can't afford to do that against Scotland... especially if the scores are close.

Yeah I think most Scots will be hoping for a sunny skies too. Gone are the days where we want a mud bath. Our Strength lies from 6 to 16 as opposed 1 to 10 as it has in the days of yesteryear.

The last 2 games between Scotland and Oz have been immense end to end stuff with some brilliant tries. I'm hoping that will continue this weekend.

Shhhh you're giving away our secret (somewhat controversial) tactics!!!

The Loaded Dog wrote:Better check the forecast for the 17th... hopefully there will be sunny blue skies.
We had a massive deluge of rain last week, around 200mm in 3 days. Still, never discount another hurricane or some other violent weather event.

The scoreline for the Fiji match was disappointing. They went to sleep (our guys not theirs) in the last 20 mins. Can't afford to do that against Scotland... especially if the scores are close.

Loaded - you also seemed to concede quite a few penalties and got turned over a lot, which is encouraging from a Scotland perspective.

What is your opinion on bringing in Hunt for the first time at 30 years old rather than a young centre?

The KHunt's best days seem like a long time ago. He was in best form about 10 years ago with the Brisbane Broncos. Then the strange foray into Aussie Rules... thought that was a big mistake. Nowadays he seems to be in a sort of twilight zone in terms of his career(s).

Agree they have problems maintaining continuity with the ball, prone to being turned over (quite regularly compared to other teams) and have never learned how to dominate up front and gain respect (or positive acknowledgement) from just about every ref... except a few.

Which then begs the question: what the phuck are they doing at training... besides kidding themselves? Maybe I'm being harsh here but they've had long enough to iron out these obvious deficiencies and make some adjustments. No use having a few prancy backs (who often stuff up too when they have the advantage) if possession is turned over and over again and again from the beef heads up front.

Sounds like we would benefit from playing two opensides, although with Barclay at 6 we pretty much have that anyway!

Warm words from Foley about Finn Russell:
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/union-news/bernard-foley-says-new-wallabies-no12-karmichael-hunt-is-built-for-test-rugby-20170613-gwq1iv.html

Am interested to see how seriously the Wallabies take this Scotland side.

George Carlin wrote:Warm words from Foley about Finn Russell:
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/union-news/bernard-foley-says-new-wallabies-no12-karmichael-hunt-is-built-for-test-rugby-20170613-gwq1iv.html

Am interested to see how seriously the Wallabies take this Scotland side.

Foley certainly has a lot of love for KHunt.

RDW_Scotland wrote:

George Carlin wrote:Warm words from Foley about Finn Russell:
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/union-news/bernard-foley-says-new-wallabies-no12-karmichael-hunt-is-built-for-test-rugby-20170613-gwq1iv.html

Am interested to see how seriously the Wallabies take this Scotland side.

Foley certainly has a lot of love for KHunt.

We all love a bit of KHunt when on offer. Lets hope he opens things up and let's the Wallabies play good balls both out wide and straight through the inside channel.

Bookies have Scotland 4/1 for a win or evens with a +14 point handicap. Wasn't quite brave enough for the outright but stuck a tenner on the handicap. Surely we can make it closer than that.

The Loaded Dog wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:

George Carlin wrote:Warm words from Foley about Finn Russell:
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/union-news/bernard-foley-says-new-wallabies-no12-karmichael-hunt-is-built-for-test-rugby-20170613-gwq1iv.html

Am interested to see how seriously the Wallabies take this Scotland side.

Foley certainly has a lot of love for KHunt.

We all love a bit of KHunt when on offer. Lets hope he opens things up and let's the Wallabies play good balls both out wide and straight through the inside channel.

RossAnderson wrote:Bookies have Scotland 4/1 for a win or evens with a +14 point handicap. Wasn't quite brave enough for the outright but stuck a tenner on the handicap. Surely we can make it closer than that.

Seems a long time ago since our handicap was playing with Parks at 10 and Morrison at 12. 

George Carlin wrote:

RossAnderson wrote:Bookies have Scotland 4/1 for a win or evens with a +14 point handicap. Wasn't quite brave enough for the outright but stuck a tenner on the handicap. Surely we can make it closer than that.

Seems a long time ago since our handicap was playing with Parks at 10 and Morrison at 12. 

Think that's worth about 21 points.

Another fantastic article from John Barclay - so much more interesting than the usual guff you get from player articles

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/40259468

JB does seem to be a changed man since he has come back into the Scotland set up, 'you don't know what you've got till it's gone' and all that sort of stuff. Joni Mitchel probably says it a lot better than me or most other people can do. There is certainly more than a whiff of that sentiment in this article.

It is still a little hard to figure out what exactly went on. Clearly there was some fallings out, firstly with Toonie at Glasgow then with SJ. As in most of these cases, I don't imagine that the blame lay solely with one party. The petulant tweets certainly did not suggest that and he like a few other Scotland Internationalist of that time did seem to feel a certain entitlement to play, no matter what kind of performances they put in. Removing that culture has certainly been central to the improvement in Scottish rugby.

In hindsight he will probably feel that he has benefitted greatly from leaving Glasgow and having to find his way at another club, which he certainly has. He has taken on captaincy and the senior player role at Scarlets with great credit and they certainly seem a tight together bunch who have certainly performed.

He has also brought a lot of this maturity back into the Scotland set up, which to be fair, is a very different one from the one he left behind. They all have to play for their places now and there is also an expectation that they will perform and win matches, even against good sides.

If I am honest, at the time I was not sad to see him go as I saw him as a symptom of the malaise in the Scotland set up and at that time I did not see him coming back into the squad. Still to his great credit he got his head down, worked hard, eventually won VC over and deservedly made his way back into the squad and the team. He has won me back over as well. It is good to have him back.

Great post Biggee

RDW_Scotland wrote:Another fantastic article from John Barclay - so much more interesting than the usual guff you get from player articles

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/40259468

Best line is definitely:

Johnny B wrote:As ever, I'm rooming with Ryan Wilson. He'd be lost without me. 

I love the imagery of kiwi farmer Hardie trying to have an intellectual discussion with private school educated Tim Swinson!

There's another interesting article about Scotland's first female ref. In the article is says Swinson is also training to be a ref - there wouldn't be much backchat if he was in charge of your game!

BigGee wrote:JB does seem to be a changed man since he has come back into the Scotland set up, 'you don't know what you've got till it's gone' and all that sort of stuff. Joni Mitchel probably says it a lot better than me or most other people can do. There is certainly more than a whiff of that sentiment in this article.

It is still a little hard to figure out what exactly went on. Clearly there was some fallings out, firstly with Toonie at Glasgow then with SJ. As in most of these cases, I don't imagine that the blame lay solely with one party. The petulant tweets certainly did not suggest that and he like a few other Scotland Internationalist of that time did seem to feel a certain entitlement to play, no matter what kind of performances they put in. Removing that culture has certainly been central to the improvement in Scottish rugby.

In hindsight he will probably feel that he has benefitted greatly from leaving Glasgow and having to find his way at another club, which he certainly has. He has taken on captaincy and the senior player role at Scarlets with great credit and they certainly seem a tight together bunch who have certainly performed.

He has also brought a lot of this maturity back into the Scotland set up, which to be fair, is a very different one from the one he left behind. They all have to play for their places now and there is also an expectation that they will perform and win matches, even against good sides.

If I am honest, at the time I was not sad to see him go as I saw him as a symptom of the malaise in the Scotland set up and at that time I did not see him coming back into the squad. Still to his great credit he got his head down, worked hard, eventually won VC over and deservedly made his way back into the squad and the team. He has won me back over as well. It is good to have him back.

You raise some excellent points, BigGee. I have always been in the 'It must be Scott Johnson's fault' camp, when it has come to JB and his Scotland exile - but it does always take two to tango. Either way, i'm delighted he has had the opportunity to show what he can do, it would have been a really bad way to have ended his international career otherwise.

The tombola is back!

I'm not so confident now I've seen that back 3.

Scotland team to play Australia at the Allianz Stadium in Sydney, Australia
Saturday (17 June, kick-off 3pm, 6am BST)

15. Greig Tonks (London Irish) – 6 caps

14. Lee Jones (Glasgow Warriors) – 4 caps
13. Alex Dunbar (Glasgow Warriors) – 25 caps
12. Duncan Taylor (Saracens) – 19 caps
11. Rory Hughes (Glasgow Warriors) – 3 caps

10. Finn Russell (Glasgow Warriors) – 28 caps
9. Ali Price (Glasgow Warriors) – 6 caps

1. Gordon Reid (London Irish) – 25 caps
2. Fraser Brown (Glasgow Warriors) – 26 caps
3. Zander Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors) – 10 caps
4. Ben Toolis (Edinburgh Rugby) – 2 caps
5. Jonny Gray (Glasgow Warriors) – 33 caps
6. John Barclay CAPTAIN – 61 caps
7. Hamish Watson (Edinburgh Rugby) – 10 caps
8. Ryan Wilson (Glasgow Warriors) – 28 caps

Substitutes
16. Ross Ford (Edinburgh Rugby) – 108 caps
17. Allan Dell (Edinburgh Rugby) – 9 caps
18. Willem Nel (Edinburgh Rugby) – 16 caps
19. Tim Swinson (Glasgow Warriors) – 30 caps
20. Josh Strauss (Sale Sharks) – 12 caps
21. Henry Pyrgos (Glasgow Warriors) – 22 caps
22. Ruaridh Jackson (Wasps) – 30 caps
23. Matt Scott (Gloucester) – 38 caps

RDW_Scotland wrote:The tombola is back!

I'm not so confident now I've seen that back 3.

Scotland team to play Australia at the Allianz Stadium in Sydney, Australia
Saturday (17 June, kick-off 3pm, 6am BST)

15. Greig Tonks (London Irish) – 6 caps

14. Lee Jones (Glasgow Warriors) – 4 caps
13. Alex Dunbar (Glasgow Warriors) – 25 caps
12. Duncan Taylor (Saracens) – 19 caps
11. Rory Hughes (Glasgow Warriors) – 3 caps

10. Finn Russell (Glasgow Warriors) – 28 caps
9. Ali Price (Glasgow Warriors) – 6 caps

1. Gordon Reid (London Irish) – 25 caps
2. Fraser Brown (Glasgow Warriors) – 26 caps
3. Zander Fagerson (Glasgow Warriors) – 10 caps
4. Ben Toolis (Edinburgh Rugby) – 2 caps
5. Jonny Gray (Glasgow Warriors) – 33 caps
6. John Barclay CAPTAIN – 61 caps
7. Hamish Watson (Edinburgh Rugby) – 10 caps
8. Ryan Wilson (Glasgow Warriors) – 28 caps

Substitutes
16. Ross Ford (Edinburgh Rugby) – 108 caps
17. Allan Dell (Edinburgh Rugby) – 9 caps
18. Willem Nel (Edinburgh Rugby) – 16 caps
19. Tim Swinson (Glasgow Warriors) – 30 caps
20. Josh Strauss (Sale Sharks) – 12 caps
21. Henry Pyrgos (Glasgow Warriors) – 22 caps
22. Ruaridh Jackson (Wasps) – 30 caps
23. Matt Scott (Gloucester) – 38 caps

He said it was because he promised players gametime - I guess he views the whole summer tour as a developmental opportunity??

Or maybe he's seeing something in training with Tonks - I like to think I'm fair on players but Tonks has shown nothing that gives me any confidence, I'd actually be more relaxed if Jackson was at FB and he doesn't exactly fill me with hope.

Hughes on the wing is another puzzler. I'd have liked to have seen Grigg in this squad somewhere.

I guess we do need more fullbacks but I don't think Tonks is the answer...

Centre combo is strange having them that way round.

Very worried about a lack of pace in the outside channels - Dunbar isn't slow but he's not exactly fast either, plus Tonks and Hughes aren't overly quick. Folau and co could run riot!

What the hell is that?