6N: Steve Tandy delivers positive Scotland squad update ahead of Italy curtain-raiser

01/28/2025 05:00 PM

AFTER a succession of injury setbacks suffered by Scotland [to captain and centre Sione Tuipulotu, stalwart second-row Scott Cummings, back-row Josh Bayliss and hooker Dylan Richardson] during the fortnight leading up to 2025 Six Nations kick-off, defence coach Steve Tandy was able to provide a more positive update this [Tuesday] afternoon, with second-rows Jonny Gray and Grant Gilchrist, back-row Luke Crosbie and winger Duhan van der Merwe – who have all been carrying knocks and niggles of various degrees of concern recently – all back in full-training ahead of the visit of Italy to Murrayfield on Saturday.

“The boys trained today, everyone’s been in and has been training, so that’s great for us after losing a few,” he said. “But that’s rugby, every team has it. We've lost a couple of big ones, but it’s what it is, we’ve just got to focus on the boys that are coming in. It's an amazing opportunity to represent Scotland, whoever it may be.”

Gray hasn’t played for his club, Bordeaux-Begles, since 14th December due to an ankle injury, which was initially expected to keep him out of the start of the Six Nations, while Gilchrist has been out since 28th December with a hand injury, and with Cummings and Max Williamson – first choice second-rows during the Autumn – ruled out for the tournament, depth in the boiler-house of the scrum is being tested, but not to the point where it is causing any great anxiety, according to Tandy.

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“We’ve always had good depth in the second-row,” said the Welshman. “Look at when we originally named the squad, a lot of the boys that were left out featured for us over the last two campaigns, so that depth has been good.

“Jonny's training fully, which is great, and Gilco's trained fully today, and again, it’s probably protection around some of it [that he didn’t play for Edinburgh the last few weeks], so we’ve got experienced boys now.

“And then you’ve got boys like Marshall Sykes, who’s played really well for Edinburgh, Gregor Brown [at Glasgow Warriors], and then Ewan Johnson coming in, so we’ve got players that have been playing at good levels and have featured for us in campaigns, so we’re still in a really good spot, I believe.

Asked if there was any concern that Gray and Gilchrist may be over their injuries but lacking match sharpness, Tandy pointed out that they are an experience you – with 77 and 72 caps for their country, respectively – which should help them to hit the ground running.

“They’ve played a lot of minutes over a period of time and I think with players now, they manage their bodies better than ever. I don’t think they let themselves get out of shape and I think they’ll draw on those experiences.

They've both got lots of caps, and again, when they were playing, they were playing really well as well. We're fully confident that if they were selected, they’d do a great job for us.”

Crosbie was listed as injured by Edinburgh for last weekend’s trip to Scarlets suffering from back spasms, but Tandy stated: “Luke’s back in training, Luke trained fully today as well.”

Meanwhile, van der Merwe didn’t train with Scotland at the start of last week due to what head coach Gregor Townsend described as “niggles” including an ankle injury he picked up playing for Edinburgh against Vannes in the EPCR Challenge Cup on 11th January. “Duhan's been in training today. He’s been good, he’s trained, he’s done everything today, so that’s been good for us,” said Tandy.

Tandy also stated that he has been impressed by the little he has seen from squad new boy Alexander Masibaka since the Australian-born No 8’s shock call-up to the Scotland squad on Monday, plucked from the obscurity of playing for Soyaux-Angouleme in France’s PRO D2 over the last two seasons.

“Underneath it all there’s obviously people like Gav Vaughan [Scottish Rugby’s Lead National Team Performance Analyst[ looking at people who are available and eligible for Scotland. Gav does an amazing job of that and then we end up looking at them.

“We've been watching his performances, Gav’s been in contact with him and there are things we’ve been watching that we’ve really, really liked, and we felt with a couple of bumps and bruises and injuries that it was a great opportunity to bring him into the environment.

“He’s been around Montpellier and he’s played  lots of rugby. We think the physical attributes, when we look at him just coming into training today, you see some of the qualities there and you see he potential of what he could be. He doesn’t have to be absolutely perfect right now, but what we’ve seen is there’s an absolute athlete there who knows how to play the game, so I think it’s a great opportunity for us to see him and have him in our environment.

“He’s fitted in quite well. He’s been great. He had a bit of planes, trains and automobiles to get here, but no, he’s fitted in and in fairness, we don’t try to throw too much information. It’s been great to see him out there today. He’s keen to learn and the boys are great with him, with new boys coming in as well, so we're really excited to see how he goes.

“I think there’s lots of skill as well [as his bulk]. I obviously look at the defensive side, and there’s speed and power. Some of the stuff around his body shape stuff, I've been very impressed.”

In theory, Saturday’s match is an ideal way to settle into the Six Nations, at home against perennial Six Nations strugglers Italy, who have finished in the bottom two of the table in 23 out of the 25 championships they have played since joining the party in 2000 – but this Scotland team know from bitter experience that you write off the current Azzurrri crop at you peril having squandered a commanding 12-point lead to suffer a demoralising defeat when the two sides met in Rome last season.

“They’re excellent,” acknowledged Tandy. “You've got [Paolo] Garbisi at stand-off, who can do a lot of things, he’s got a great kicking game, and he caught us out a couple of times last year with those kicks.

“Then you’ve got the centre partnership [Tommaso Menoncello and Juan Ignacio Brex], it’s lovely, and then you’ve got powerful wingers [Monty Ioane and Jacopo Trulla] and real dynamite in around full-back [Ange Capuozzo] as well.

“There are individual threats and they pose a [collective] threat in the way they want to attack, in their identity and their shape, so we know defensively we’re going to have to be really on the money. You can’t have a knock-off moment against Italy, whereas maybe ten years ago or five years ago … now they’re relentless in what they do, they keep coming, even last year we were up on the scoreboard, they keep chipping away, they don’t go away.

“They are fit and super well organised. We got burnt last year, we’re at home and it’s the start of the Six Nations, we need to be fully focused from minute one.”

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