Tough-tackling Tonga will provide a good yardstick for an experimental side featuring a host of uncapped players
First hurdles are there to be cleared in confident fashion, and that is precisely what Scotland should do against Tonga on Saturday afternoon before confronting tougher challenges against Australia, South Africa and Japan. But this opening Autumn Nations Series match at Murrayfield represents a significant risk, nonetheless, for Gregor Townsend’s team, due to their own depleted resources and the Tongans’ physical threat.
As the game is being played outside the international window, Townsend is without his England- and France-based players, which, combined with injuries, deprives him of at least half a dozen players who would normally be in his starting lineup. In the absence of Stuart Hogg, Finn Russell, Duhan van der Merwe, Chris Harris, Rory Sutherland and Jonny Gray, Townsend needs to hope that his new caps – four will start with another four on the bench – get up to speed quickly.
