"He's been fine ever since" – 5 Talking Points: Gregor Townsend starts Finn Russell in Scotland squad to face England
Yesterday at 09:26 AM
By Cameron Archibald
Gregor Townsend has named his 23-man squad to face England at Allianz Stadium on Saturday. Speaking to the media in a press conference Thursday, the Scotland head coach addressed Darcy Graham's continued absence, the danger presented by Fin & Marcus Smith for England, the importance of versatility in the backs and more.
Find your local Greene King and settle in for the 2025 Six Nations!
- Townsend addresses Darcy Graham's injury & Finn Russell's return
Graham passed the concussion protocol following his hospitalisation, due to a collision with teammate Finn Russell against Ireland. The Edinburgh winger was discharged that evening and has been lightly training with the squad during their camp in Spain. Despite being concussion-free, Townsend has decided to leave him out of Saturday's squad entirely.
GREGOR TOWNSEND: "We took the decision in discussion with the medical team, just because it was a bigger injury. Darcy was symptom-free after a couple of days and he's been great, but we just felt it wasn't right to bring him into full contact this week."
"He's trained with us out in Spain, just not the contact elements. He should be fully fit for our next game."
"Finn was symptom free from the day after the Ireland game. He had to go on a 12-day recovery protocol like Darcy, but he's been fine ever since and trained like us over the last few days. He had contact on Tuesday and then a full session yesterday which was live (full contact)."
- Explaining the controversial second row selection
Despite much criticism of Scotland's locks in the Ireland match, Townsend has stuck with the experienced pair of Grant Gilchrist and Jonny Gray for Twickenham. The pair bring a combined age of 64 and 154 caps to the table, leading Townsend to maintain continuity in the scrum instead of bringing in Gregor Brown, who only made his international debut in last summer's tour of the Americas.
GREGOR TOWNSEND: "Jonny hasn't played a huge amount of minutes because his first game back after being injured for a couple of months against Italy. It was a tough game for our pack against Ireland for a number of reasons, but I felt both second rows were a big part of how we got back into the game in the last ten minutes of the first half.
"Jonny is obviously raring to go, Grant as well. They've played in these fixtures over the last few years and before that when we weren't as successful, but they've been involved in a lot of our success against England."
- Townsend on the importance of versatile backs
In the Ireland match, Scotland found themselves in an unenviable situation when Graham and Russell simultaneously exited the match due to injury. With a 6-2 split on the bench, Townsend shuffled the pack and used several players in their less favoured roles. Backup scrum-half Jamie Dobie found himself on the wing for a large chunk of one of Scotland's most difficult fixtures of the year. Additionally, centres Huw Jones and Tom Jordan, alongside fullback Blair Kinghorn, have experience of slotting into different positions when required. Townsend even discussed the possibility of having to use forwards in the backs, if their horrendous luck continues.
GREGOR TOWNSEND: "It helps with your decision to go 6-2. Glasgow do it every weekend and Jamie has been part of that, whether he's been at 9 or covering on the wing.
Huw played on the wing against Fiji, Tom's played fullback and Blair's played on the wing. We'd like to hope that we're not using any forwards in the back line but that might happen too if we get a bit of bad luck. Matt Fagerson and Jack Dempsey could easily play in the back – we're not planning for that but we've got to adapt."
- Assessing the danger of England's pair of Smiths
In a shock move which turned out favourably for his side, England coach Steve Borthwick elected to move Harlequin's Marcus Smith back to 15, allowing young Fin Smith his first Test start in the win over France, where the Northampton man picked up the Player of the Match award. Townsend spoke on how his side have prepared for the threat posed by the pair.
GREGOR TOWNSEND: "They're really dangerous. Marcus is a brilliant counter-attacker, and he gets to do that more often at full back. He's also a really good first receiver, so he can work in tandem with Fin.
"Fin is really competitive. He'll tackle, he'll carry, and he's a really good organiser of attacks. So they're dangerous with both those players, but they've got some really good players outside of them as well."
- How his side have to improve from the Ireland game
Having faced much stick for their 32-18 defeat to the Irish at Murrayfield a fortnight ago, Townsend spoke frankly on the areas his side have to improve in order to get their championship back on track with a win.
GREGOR TOWNSEND: "I think the focus is on us delivering a better performance than Ireland, and that can get us a win. Players need to play with as much physicality as they can against a really tough opponent.
"We know that there's going to be a threat around the tackle area, so our speed to contact has to be better. I think there was one or two occasions against Ireland, that we just weren't quick enough to secure the ball.
"When we were producing quick ball ,we were going through a lot of phases. We know that's the key for our attack, but just getting there quickly is going to be important. The players have done well over the first two games, so building on that will put us in a good position on Saturday."
The post “He's been fine ever since” – 5 Talking Points: Gregor Townsend starts Finn Russell in Scotland squad to face England appeared first on Ruck.
