Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend insists he has picked his strongest team to face Fiji at Murrayfield on Saturday – but there is no place in the squad for former captain Jamie Ritchie.
Townsend’s side will welcome the free-flowing Fijians in the opening match of the Autumn Nations Series in front of a sold-out crowd at the national stadium.
With the game falling outside of the official Test window, Scotland’s squad is made up almost entirely of domestic players based with Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh.
Sione Tuipulotu will captain the side at centre in what is a strong backline alongside Huw Jones, Duhan van der Merwe and the fit-again Darcy Graham.
But the absence of Ritchie, the back-rower who captained Scotland at last year’s World Cup, is purely a selection called based on form.
Tuipulotu, left, and Darcy Graham will be reunited in Scotland colours against Fiji
There is no place in the squad for former Scotland skipper Jamie Ritchie
Gregor Townsend has picked his strongest possible side for first Autumn Test
Ritchie was in and out of the team during this year’s Six Nations due to poor form – and Townsend has challenged him to fight his way back to face world champions South Africa next weekend.
‘Yeah, it’s a selection call,’ said Townsend, who has instead selected an all-Glasgow Warriors back row of Rory Darge, Matt Fagerson and Jack Dempsey.
‘I think the Glasgow back row are in real form. Jamie’s competing with Rory, who’s the vice-captain at openside, and obviously Matt at blindside.
‘With Jack Dempsey as well, those three have got the nod. With Gregor Brown, we feel that he’s really added something off the bench.
‘It allows Jamie to focus on next week and he can really compete with others to be in the squad for South Africa.’
Fiji will be without several of their star players who are based at clubs around Europe and will instead have to select their own domestic squad.
Sione Tuipulotu will skipper the Scotland side against Fiji at Murrayfield
Dary Graham is back in the Scotland side after a lengthy absence through injury
The dynamic van der Merwe will be part of a very strong Scotland team
Huw Jones also takes his place in the Scotland side as Autumn series gets under way
But Townsend is still wary of the threat they will pose, especially given their good form which saw them beat Japan 41-17 only a few weeks ago.
‘This will be a very tough Test match,’ he said. ‘This Fijian team, I think 11 out of the starting 15 have just beaten Japan by scoring 40 points. They’ve had a great summer.
‘This is a tougher test because we’re playing against a cohesive Fijian team that have been together all season.
‘So that’s number one. We’ve got a responsibility to win Test matches and put out what we believe is our strongest team to do that.
‘Number two is we’ve got a game against the world champions in eight days’ time and we need our players to be up to speed. We’ve only had two training sessions.
‘So the best way to do that is getting them out, playing together, playing Test match level.
‘So, yeah, that’s why we’ve picked what we believe is our strongest team. Regarding opportunities for others to play, they’ll come during this period. We have four test matches plus an A game.
‘We’ve got a core of 45 now. That’ll extend to 50 when we go into the final weekend when we’re playing Chile and Australia. But we may mix things up for the Portugal game.’
