Gregor Townsend is braced for a “difficult” task in whittling his 41-man Rugby World Cup training group down to 33 for the tournament itself, although the Scotland head coach is intent on finalising his pool for France in early August.
There were few major surprises in the 50-year-old’s provisional squad named on Tuesday. Glasgow back Stafford McDowall and Leicester lock Cam Henderson were the only uncapped players included, although both were involved in the Six Nations squad earlier this year.
Jonny Gray was the highest-profile absentee after the Exeter second row suffered a serious knee injury recently, while Fraser Brown, Johnny Matthews and Mark Bennett have been left out.
“It was really difficult,” Townsend said of his selection. “Certain positions required a lot of debate, not just yesterday but the last few weeks.
“I was really keen for a 38-man squad and then I suppose Jonny picking up his injury last week, and a couple of other things, it got to 40 and then it got finalised on 41.
“It just shows the depth we have that we’ve left out some quality players and we’ve still got so much quality in the squad.”
Scotland play four warm-up matches between July 29 and August 26 and Townsend hopes to cull eight players after the game at home to France on August 5.
“It will be difficult,” he said. “It would have been easier if it was 38 because then you only have five players to drop out the squad.
“My goal is to get that down to 33 quickly, maybe after the second warm-up game. That’s what I’m looking at, so we can start working with that 33 in training weeks, get used to them working together, with two games after that.
“If we can get down to 33, that will be really good for our preparations for the World Cup.”
Townsend confirmed he does not expect lock Gray to be fit for the World Cup after the 29-year-old dislocated his kneecap in Exeter’s Champions Cup semi-final defeat by La Rochelle a week past Sunday.
“I think it’s going to be at least four months from now until he’s back in full training and ready to play,” said the head coach. “We kick off in four months’ time against South Africa so who knows?
“It might be that a couple of weeks into the tournament we pick up an injury and he’s back in full training and played pre-season games, but I think that’s unlikely from where we stand today.
“Let’s hope he’s ready to go around September or October, whether that’s for us if we pick up injuries, or his club.”
Edinburgh wing Darcy Graham and Glasgow flanker Rory Darge are both back in the mix after missing the Six Nations through injury, while former Scotland captains Stuart Hogg and Stuart McInally – both of whom recently announced plans to retire from rugby to pursue other interests after the autumn showpiece – remain on course for World Cup swansongs.
Townsend admitted it was always unlikely there would be many newcomers to the World Cup squad given the number of players that have been integrated gradually but deliberately over the past few years.
“The form of players that have been in our recent squads,” said Townsend when asked why there were so few new faces.
“Argentina and Chile (the summer tour) last year was very important for a number of reasons, and one of the reasons was development of players that got opportunities there and have kicked on and are still in our squad.
“The Six Nations was more of a senior squad, we picked the best squad we could put together and didn’t make many changes because we wanted to keep as much cohesion as possible, so it was always going to be difficult for players outside the group to come in when the players were performing so well in games and training.
“There’s lots of depth there so if we do pick up injuries, we know we’ve got quality players just outside the squad.”
Robertson makes overseas players plea after New Zealand labour versus Italy
New Zealand head coach Scott Robertson has said he wants to see overseas-based players become eligible for the All Blacks after his side laboured to a 29-11 win over Italy.
The visitors recorded their 18th straight win against Italy to wrap up their autumn series, but Robertson's side were made to work for the victory in Turin in flanker Sam Cane's final Test for the team, ahead of his switch to play club rugby in Japan.
Speaking after the game, Robertson said he would ask New Zealand Rugby to follow in the footsteps of world champions South Africa and allow those playing outside domestic competitions to be eligible for the national team.
"We don't want to be a cycle behind or a couple of years behind," Robertson said.
"Professional rugby is always evolving. Let's keep an open mind and see what's next. I'll definitely be presenting.
"Using South Africa as an example, they get the opportunity to use a lot of experienced players who are looked after and managed well into their 30s so they've got a great balance.
"And they've got big squads, they can have two really quality 15s."
Gatland future up in the air after Wales suffer 12th consecutive loss
Wales head coach Warren Gatland did not have answers about his future following their 45-12 defeat to South Africa, their 12th consecutive loss.
The Springboks dominated from the off and were cruising 26-0 just before half-time, after Franco Mostert, Eben Etzebeth, Kurt-Lee Arendse and Elrigh Louw crossed.
Rio Dyer's try before the break ensured Wales did not draw a blank in the first half, but South Africa did not let up as Aphelele Fassi, Gerhard Steenenkamp and Jordan Hendrikse all followed suit.
James Botham's late effort ensured Wales did not suffer their worst-ever home defeat, but they have now gone an entire calendar year without a win for the first time since 1937.
Gatland has come under increasing pressure as the losses pile up, and though his future remains up in the air, he was proud of how his inexperienced side held up against the world champions.
"It's about seeing what the Welsh Rugby Union has to say," he told TNT Sports when asked about his future.
"You don't make a decision straight after a game, it's always tough coming to a press conference straight after a game before you've had time to catch your breath and look at some of the stats and numbers.
"Let's just see what happens over the next few days."
On their recent run of form, he added: "We punched massively above our weight for a number of years, and we've been saying that when the dam bursts it's going to take a little bit of time to put things right.
"The dam has burst, but it's about making sure that, collectively, with the regions we work together.
"I think we need to be in better shape in a conditioning point of view. We will work on that with some of the players over the next couple of months, so when they turn up for the Six Nations, they're ready to go from day one."
South Africa have won each of their last three Tests, building on their wins over Scotland and England earlier in the series.
Captain Siya Kolisi was pleased with their ruthlessness in the game but also sympathised with Gatland's situation.
"It's been a really good tour," he told TNT Sports. "It hasn't been perfect, the first two games we weren't happy - happy we won, but there was so much we could have done better.
"The results are important, but it's how you do things, the standards we set for ourselves. We know we can do a little bit better as a group.
"We were where Wales are a couple of years ago.
"The only thing I can say is you just can't stop believing. If you look at their starting backline, one of our guys had more caps than all of them. You have to be realistic about these things."
Elsewhere, Ireland produced their most convincing win of their series, scoring eight tries as they cruised past Fiji 52-17 in Dublin earlier on Saturday.
France 37-23 Argentina: Les Bleus wrap up campaign with third win
France posted a comfortable 37-23 win over Argentina on Friday to make it three wins out of three tests at the Stade de France to conclude their Autumn Nations Series.
Having also beaten New Zealand and Japan in Paris this month, Fabien Galthie's side claimed four tries, including a superb solo effort from Louis Bielle-Biarrey, as they eased to victory against the Pumas.
The hosts led 30-9 at the break after Argentina's Julian Montoya and Juan Martin Gonzalez were both shown yellow cards in the first half, with Thomas Ramos slotting his third penalty of the game.
Tomas Albornoz made it 30-16 for Felipe Contepomi's visitors, but their hopes of a comeback were dashed as Bielle-Biarrey scored his fourth try in three games before Ramos made it 37-16.
Albornoz then cut the deficit to 37-23 with a two-pointer with nine minutes to play, but that wasn't enough to stop his side from falling to a defeat.
"We knew it was going to be an 80-minute game. We saw last week how Argentina went all the way against a good Irish team," France lock Emmanuel Meafou told TNT Sports.
"We are happy with the win. We have three from three [in the autumn] and we will look to build on that in the Six Nations next year."
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