Gregor Townsend sends for the cavalry to take on France, with one eye on South Africa opener

Gregor Townsend will bring back his frontline players for this weekend’s game against France as he seeks to have his squad battle hardened for their Rugby World Cup opener against South Africa in Marseille on September 10.
Graham Bean
By Graham Bean
Published 30th Jul 2023, 22:00 BST
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Ben Healy made his first start for Scotland and was named man of the match for his performance in the 25-13 win over Italy at Scottish Gas Murrayfield. (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group)Ben Healy made his first start for Scotland and was named man of the match for his performance in the 25-13 win over Italy at Scottish Gas Murrayfield. (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group)
Ben Healy made his first start for Scotland and was named man of the match for his performance in the 25-13 win over Italy at Scottish Gas Murrayfield. (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group)

A Scotland team featuring two new caps and a couple more making their first Test starts defeated Italy 25-13 at Murrayfield on Saturday in the first of four warm-up matches the team will play before the tournament. A number of key players were absent, including Huw Jones, Sione Tuipulotu, Duhan van der Merwe, Finn Russell, Ben White, Pierre Schoeman, Zander Fagerson, Grant Gilchrist, Richie Gray, Jamie Ritchie, Hamish Watson and Jack Dempsey. All are likely to return as Scotland step up their preparations with back-to-back games against the World Cup hosts. France will visit Murrayfield this Saturday before Townsend takes his team to Saint-Étienne the following week. “We will be putting out as strong a team as possible over the next two weeks,” said the coach who will use the French games, and the final warm-up against Georgia on August 26, to build cohesion in his squad. He has indicated that some players could play in as many as three of the preparation matches to ensure they are ready for the Springboks, who edged past Argentina 22-21 in Johannesburg on Saturday evening.

“We know we start with a very tough game, South Africa, who have been playing for the last few weeks,” said Townsend. “So they don’t finish at the end of the season and have a break without Test matches. The ability for us to have four Test matches now is very helpful. But we’re going to have to build cohesion, match fitness, match hardiness with as close a group as possible [to the one] we believe will be played against South Africa. So players will play two, maybe three games that are likely to play against South Africa.”

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Stafford McDowall, the centre, and Cameron Henderson, the second row, made their Scotland debuts against Italy, the latter off the bench, while stand-off Ben Healy and prop Murphy Walker started Test matches for the first time. Healy was man-of-the-match. Townsend is expected to name his 33-man World Cup squad on August 16. South Africa, meanwhile, will head to Buenos Aires for a rematch with Argentina this weekend.

Related topics:Gregor TownsendSouth AfricaFranceScotlandItalyMurrayfieldFinn Russell
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