Six Nations team guide: Scotland

Munster’s Irish-born, Scottish-qualified Ben Healy is the new fly-half on the block in Gregor Townsend’s squad.

Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend, for whom it could be the last Six Nations campaign. Picture: Jane Barlow/PA Wire.

SCOTLAND 

SIX NATIONS CHAMPIONSHIP

Your home for the latest news, views and analysis of this year's Six Nations Championship from our award winning sports team.

SIX NATIONS CHAMPIONSHIP

Your home for the latest news, views and analysis of this year's Six Nations Championship from our award winning sports team.

Home: BT Murrayfield, Edinburgh 

If they were a movie title they’d be… The Usual Suspects 

World Ranking: 7 

2022 Test Record: P12 W5 L7 

Highlight reel: Another frustrating year for the Scots began on cloud nine with a Calcutta Cup win over England in Edinburgh but a last-minute loss at home to Australia in the first of the November Tests was the nearest they got to a significant second victory in the last 12 months.

6N Odds: Outright: 20/1 Grand Slam: 66/1 Triple Crown: 20/1 

Last time out: Fourth W2, L3 

Oscar-winning performance: Third - 2001, 2006, 2013, 2018 

Rotten tomato: Whitewashed 2004, 2012, 2015.

Head coach: Gregor Townsend (since 2018) P25 W12 D1 L12: Win Rate: 48% 

If he was a screen character, who would he be? John McClane (Die Hard) – always having to problem solve to escape from dangerous situations, only to get dragged into new ones.

Captain: Jamie Ritchie – debut captaincy campaign 

Who would play him in a biopic? Gerard Butler, no-nonsense action start who leads from the front.

Most appearances: 55 - Ross Ford (2006-17); current: 51 - Stuart Hogg 

Most points: 403 - Chris Paterson (2000-11); current: 142 - Finn Russell 

Most tries: 15 - Stuart Hogg (2012-22) 

A-lister: He may exasperate his head coach from time to time but there is no doubting Finn Russell’s box-office number one status in this Scotland team. The Racing 92 fly-half, set for a big money move to Bath this summer, has skills and vision to unlock any defence.

A Star Is Re-Born? Could being freed from the Scotland captaincy bring the best out of full-back Stuart Hogg in a blue jersey as he nears his 100th Test for his country?

New cast members… Munster’s Irish-born, Scottish-qualified Ben Healy is the new fly-half on the block in Townsend’s squad, one of four uncapped players hoping for a debut in the coming weeks. Bath wing Ruaridh McConnochie, who won two caps with England in 2019 before switching allegiance under World Rugby rules, Glasgow centre Stafford McDowell and Leicester lock Cameron Henderson are the other new boys.

Failed the audition… Edinburgh scrum-half Ben Vellacott misses out on the chance of providing cover for first-choice Ali Price with Ben White and George Horne preferred while Bristol back rower Magnus Bradbury is also omitted.

Broke a leg? Rory Darge, Scott Cummings, Murphy Walker, Darcy Graham and Adam Hastings all miss out through injury but Hamish Watson is included despite not played since a concussion in November.

Potential milestones: Former captain Stuart Hogg is four caps away from his century of Scotland Test and with 51 championship matches under his belt is also four short of Scotland’s leading Six Nations appearance maker Ross Ford.

Donal Lenihan's verdict: Scotland After six years at the helm, this may well be Gregor Townsend’s last 6N in charge. Under his watch, Scotland have enjoyed a number of notable tournament wins, not least delivering four Calcutta Cups courtesy of three wins and a draw against England over the last five years.

What his side badly lacks is consistency. Last time out they were very impressive when dismantling an Argentinian team that had just beaten England in Twickenham.

With three home games, Townsend needs to deliver three wins over the course of the championship for it to be deemed a successful campaign. Edinburgh and Glasgow are both in decent form and Scotland need to capitalise on that.

Perhaps the most valuable return Townsend can get from the campaign is in finding a way to extract the best from his creative but errant No 10 Finn Russell.

6N SQUAD: Forwards (23): E Ashman (Sale), J Bayliss (Bath), S Berghan (Glasgow), J Bhatti (Glasgow), F Brown (Glasgow), D Cherry (Edinburgh), A Christie (Saracens), L Crosbie (Edinburgh), J Dempsey (Glasgow), M Fagerson (Glasgow), Z Fagerson (Glasgow), G Gilchrist (Edinburgh), J Gray (Exeter), R Gray (Glasgow), C Henderson (Leicester), WP Nel (Edinburgh), J Ritchie (Edinburgh), P Schoeman (Edinburgh), J Sebastian (Scarlets), S Skinner (Edinburgh), R Sutherland (Ulster), G Turner (Glasgow), H Watson (Edinburgh).

Backs (17): C Harris (Gloucester), B Healy (Munster), S Hogg (Exeter), G Horne (Glasgow), H Jones (Glasgow), B Kinghorn (Edinburgh), S Maitland (Saracens), R McConnochie (Bath), S McDowell (Glasgow), A Price (Glasgow), C Redpath (Bath), F Russell (Racing 92), O Smith (Glasgow), K Steyn (Glasgow), S Tuipulotu (Glasgow), D van der Merwe (Edinburgh), B White (London Irish)