All roads lead to Paris for the Scotland rugby team, who have a date with destiny against Ireland coming up on October 7, which they hope will be a straight shoot-out at the Stade de France against the number one ranked team in the world for a place in the World Cup quarter-finals.
But first they must negotiate Romania in Lille tomorrow night, which isn’t quite a formality but shouldn’t cause Gregor Townsend’s side too much stress given that their Eastern European opponents have been hopelessly out-classed and out-muscled by Ireland [82-8] and South Africa [76-0] in their two World Cup Pool B games so far.
The fact that head coach Townsend announced yesterday that he has made 13 changes to the starting XV for this match compared to the side he sent out against Tonga in Nice last Sunday (a comprehensive 45-17 win in the end) shouldn’t be misinterpreted as a demonstration of any sort of lack of respect for this weekend’s opposition, rather a recognition that at this stage in the tournament it has to about managing resources to make sure that key performers can be at their best when it really matters.
“We’ve had an eye on this team for a week or so,” said Townsend. “As soon as we selected the side to play Tonga it was looking ahead to Romania too, managing people’s gametime during that game against Tonga, particularly when we got the bonus point.
“We knew that with the six-day turnaround, there were a couple of guys who started and some on the bench who would have to start again. We knew Grant Gilchrist would start and be captain for a week or two.”
Kyle Steyn and captain for the day Grant Gilchrist are the survivors from the Tonga match. Meanwhile, winger Darcy Graham – who scored an excellent try off the bench against the Pacific Islanders – is the other player in this starting fifteen who would be regarded as a bonafide contender to start against Ireland (probably ahead of Steyn).
However, Townsend has told all 23 involved in this Romania Test that they have a chance of elbowing their way into frame for that next match with a big performance tomorrow.
“Saturday will be hugely influential in terms of selection for Ireland,” he said. “We put a lot on what players have done for us in the past and players have been training well, so we know they are in really good physical shape, but the best way to influence selection is to play well.
“The things we will be looking for are sticking to process, showing huge effort, being really physical in our contacts in attack and also defensively, and helping the team win.
“We want to play as a team and whatever happens with the way the game goes, we’ve got to make sure we focus for 80 minutes and produce our best performance of the tournament so far.
“We’re looking to get better than we were against Tonga, and Tonga was an improvement on South Africa. This group have the opportunity to do that now.”
Four of tomorrow’s starters – tight-head prop Javan Sebastian, flankers Luke Crosbie and Hamish Watson and stand-off Ben Healy – are getting their first game-time of the tournament.
Townsend was full of praise for the way Watson, who was one of the first names on the team sheet when fit for the best part of a decade, has adapted to falling down the pecking order, behind Rory Darge, during the last year. “Hamish is one of our senior players, he’s been a terrific player for Scotland, he’s well loved by the group, coaches and players,” said the coach. “Just over a year ago he was captain for us over in Argentina. To go from being a regular starter, a captain and then miss out on the 23 for the first two [World Cup] games was obviously tough and frustrating for him.
“We didn’t make that many changes for those first two games, so some players rightly feel they’ve not had an opportunity. It’s just been down to circumstances. This is an opportunity for him to play in the World Cup but also to put pressure on the players who have started the first two games, to be selected for the game against Ireland.”
Townsend also singled out Sebastian, who was plucked from obscurity in south Wales - where he was a squad member with the Scarlets - when selected for the summer tour to Georgia and Romania in 2021 (abandoned due to Covid), and who is making his first Scotland start tomorrow night after seven cameos off the bench during the last two years.
“I think he’s probably been our most improved player throughout our summer camp,” he said. “He’s worked really hard to get himself in a position where he can contribute physically outside of the scrum and he’s shown that in training.
“He’s actually won ‘trainer of the week’ which is something that’s voted for by the players and they’ve been really impressed by what he’s done in training.
“I felt the way he played [off the bench] against France in our warm-up game in Saint-Etienne, both in the tight and the loose, showed that he was a player that’s got skills and can move well.
“He’s a very good rugby player, but the most important thing is his fitness. He’s the fittest he’s ever been and that’s credit to him for the work he’s done andI know he’s going to make a big impact at scrum time because we’re seen it in our scrum sessions, we saw it in the Italian game when he came off the bench and we had two scrums where we drove Italy off the ball.”
Scotland (versus Romania on Saturday @ Stade Pierre-Mauroy, Lille, kick-off 8pm GMT): O Smith; D Graham, C Harris, C Redpath, K Steyn; B Healy, A Price; J Bhatti, E Ashman, J Sebastian, S Skinner, G Gilchrist ©, L Crosbie, H Watson (VC), M Fagerson. Substitutes: J Matthews, R Sutherland, W Nel, S Cummings, R Darge, G Horne, B Kinghorn, H Jones.
