Gregor Townsend selects Lions-bound duo for Scotland clash with Samoa
Darcy Graham has already linked up with the Lions and Glasgow prop Sutherland and Edinburgh hooker Ashman will join him with a view to playing in next Tuesday's match against a First Nations & Pasifika XV.
Townsend said: 'The fact we're playing Friday night and they can get to Melbourne on Sunday, the same time as the Lions are arriving, as long as they are available to train on Monday and be available for the game on Tuesday, there won't be any real consideration on game time.
'We hope every one of our players come through fit but Ewan and Rory were very keen to play.'
Townsend was delighted with the additional Lions recognition, which took the number of Scots selected to 12, including the injured Zander Fagerson.
'Especially for Darcy to go there now and be part of the Lions squad, building up to the first Test and then getting a really good run at potentially being involved in that midweek game,' he added.
'And the other two guys, they were buzzing when I passed on the news to them that they were going to be getting a phone call from the Lions and the players were really pleased for them as well.
'Maybe it's not in the front of their minds because they've been preparing for a Test match this week but I'm sure their focus will turn to the Lions as soon as Friday night is over.'
Townsend has made five personnel changes following the 29-14 defeat by Fiji.
Your Scotland team to take on Samoa in our final Skyscanner Pacific Tour match has been confirmed 🏴
More ➡️ https://t.co/XmbQfVZuyN pic.twitter.com/MfdXiLtaLJ
— Scottish Rugby (@Scotlandteam) July 16, 2025
Gregor Brown returns from injury to start in the second row while Andy Onyeama-Christie is drafted into the back row after Jamie Ritchie dropped out with a foot injury.
Rory Hutchinson and Stafford McDowall form a new centre partnership in place of Cameron Redpath and Tom Jordan, who suffered a fractured hand against Fiji. Arron Reed replaces Graham with Kyle Steyn swapping wings.
Ben Muncaster is back from injury but has to settle for a place on the bench alongside uncapped Glasgow prop Fin Richardson.
'While there's a lot of changes, some of them were outwith our control,' Townsend said.
'But we've looked to put our strongest team out. We were disappointed with the result at the weekend and we want to finish this tour with a real strong performance and finish on a high from a playing point of view because off the field it's been excellent.
'We feel very privileged to be playing in such an iconic and historic stadium, Eden Park. It will be a great atmosphere, a noisy crowd, you'd mainly imagine supporting Samoa. It's one of the most iconic stadiums in world rugby.
'A great opportunity for us to play a proper Test match in that stadium and finish the tour on a real high.'
Townsend earmarked two main areas of improvement.
'The contact area,' he said. 'Just being more ruthless in that area, quicker in support, ball-carrying, working harder on the floor, just not allowing the opposition any opportunities to get the ball back.
'And our discipline. Discipline can be a number of things that the referee can call you up on, but not being offside, just giving them a bit of space, that would be the first one that we can fix.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Rhyl Journal
2 hours ago
- Rhyl Journal
Jack Conan reveals video from Katie Taylor inspired Lions before second Test win
Taylor, an Olympic gold medal winner and current undisputed world super lightweight champion, sent the good luck message to Andy Farrell's squad in the build-up to Saturday's second Test at Melbourne Cricket Club. The 39-year-old's words on the ability to dig deep turned out to be prophetic as the Lions emerged 29-26 winners after fighting back from an 18-point deficit. 'The video was unbelievably poignant and powerful. It spoke about being prepared to win with skill, but also being ready to win by will,' said Ireland number eight Conan, who like Taylor hails from Bray in County Wicklow. History made 🦁#Lions2025 — British & Irish Lions (@lionsofficial) July 26, 2025 'That was something that was massively summed up in the game because we were not at our best at all. 'It's huge because she comes from the town I'm from. I'm incredibly proud of where I come from and I know Katie is as well. 'She's gone on to achieve incredible feats in the boxing world. To be such a superstar, incredibly humble and driven is something that we leant on as well because we knew that Australia are a hugely proud nation and they showed it in spades. 'Everyone loved it, even the English and the Scottish boys and the Welsh boy – it resonated with everyone. It was unbelievably poignant, it was class. It really hit home for us.' It took a beautifully-taken try by Hugo Keenan with 51 seconds remaining to separate the rivals in one of the greatest Lions matches ever played. Remarkably, Keenan's touchdown was the first time they led in the match. Conan admits that victory tastes all the sweeter for having been taken to the wire as Australia raised their game to a whole new level a week after starting the series with a whimper in Brisbane. 'We were not at our best by any measure, but physically the lads dug in unbelievably well,' he said. Full time scenes in Melbourne 🥹🦁#Lions2025 — British & Irish Lions (@lionsofficial) July 26, 2025 'It was disappointing how we played, but we played for 80 minutes. Hugo getting over the line in the last minute was just unbelievable. 'It wasn't my best game. A lot of us weren't at the races at all, but we stuck in there. You can't fault the effort. I thought the defensive sets we put in, just whacking people and just staying in there, was unbelievable. 'It's something that will go down in history. They won't be writing the history books about how s*** we were, but they'll say that we won and that's all that matters. 'Everyone's over the moon. To be part of a Lions winning series team is incredibly special. The celebrations in the changing room wouldn't have been the same if we'd won by 20.'
North Wales Chronicle
2 hours ago
- North Wales Chronicle
Jack Conan reveals video from Katie Taylor inspired Lions before second Test win
Taylor, an Olympic gold medal winner and current undisputed world super lightweight champion, sent the good luck message to Andy Farrell's squad in the build-up to Saturday's second Test at Melbourne Cricket Club. The 39-year-old's words on the ability to dig deep turned out to be prophetic as the Lions emerged 29-26 winners after fighting back from an 18-point deficit. 'The video was unbelievably poignant and powerful. It spoke about being prepared to win with skill, but also being ready to win by will,' said Ireland number eight Conan, who like Taylor hails from Bray in County Wicklow. History made 🦁#Lions2025 — British & Irish Lions (@lionsofficial) July 26, 2025 'That was something that was massively summed up in the game because we were not at our best at all. 'It's huge because she comes from the town I'm from. I'm incredibly proud of where I come from and I know Katie is as well. 'She's gone on to achieve incredible feats in the boxing world. To be such a superstar, incredibly humble and driven is something that we leant on as well because we knew that Australia are a hugely proud nation and they showed it in spades. 'Everyone loved it, even the English and the Scottish boys and the Welsh boy – it resonated with everyone. It was unbelievably poignant, it was class. It really hit home for us.' It took a beautifully-taken try by Hugo Keenan with 51 seconds remaining to separate the rivals in one of the greatest Lions matches ever played. Remarkably, Keenan's touchdown was the first time they led in the match. Conan admits that victory tastes all the sweeter for having been taken to the wire as Australia raised their game to a whole new level a week after starting the series with a whimper in Brisbane. 'We were not at our best by any measure, but physically the lads dug in unbelievably well,' he said. Full time scenes in Melbourne 🥹🦁#Lions2025 — British & Irish Lions (@lionsofficial) July 26, 2025 'It was disappointing how we played, but we played for 80 minutes. Hugo getting over the line in the last minute was just unbelievable. 'It wasn't my best game. A lot of us weren't at the races at all, but we stuck in there. You can't fault the effort. I thought the defensive sets we put in, just whacking people and just staying in there, was unbelievable. 'It's something that will go down in history. They won't be writing the history books about how s*** we were, but they'll say that we won and that's all that matters. 'Everyone's over the moon. To be part of a Lions winning series team is incredibly special. The celebrations in the changing room wouldn't have been the same if we'd won by 20.'
Daily Mail
5 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Ben Stokes sees his pain as a friend not a foe after channeling late father's spirit to deliver brave, bicep-straining spell in gripping fourth Test
Before the fourth Test became a long and frustrating succession of strangled England appeals and stubborn India resistance, before the match turned into a vaudeville of full tosses and slogged sixes, the morning session provided some of the most compelling theatre of even this wonderful series. It centred on Ben Stokes and his relationship with pain. It is an interesting correspondence that these two share. Sometimes, it almost feels as if they are friends, as if Stokes welcomes pain as just another thing for him to overcome, something to make him feel worthy of this gift that he has been given, and of his father, Ged. It became evident from the first ball he bowled that the England captain was carrying an injury to his biceps tendon in his right arm. He clutched at it after every delivery but he would not submit to it. He ran in time after time after time, over after over, long after the toll he was exacting on his body began to make many in the ground feel uneasy. And even though he was clearly in agony, he was still England's best bowler on a day that was to end in disappointment and anticlimax. Only he, and briefly Jofra Archer, caused India any real discomfort. Only he extracted enough life out of redoubtably flat pitch to suggest that England might yet force the win that would have clinched the series. One of the things that makes Stokes such an inspiring leader and the most charismatic character in English sport is that his career appears to be guided by the principle of sacrifice of self in the service of the team. If that means staring down pain, in refusing to submit to it, then so be it. Some of it is learned behaviour. His late father, Ged, an indomitable rugby league player, was a famously courageous player who, to less formidable human beings, was almost comically resistant to physical discomfort. The most celebrated example of his defiance was an injury he sustained to his finger in a match in his native New Zealand in 1982. 'I thought to myself, "I don't really want to come off for a dislocated finger",' he said later, 'so I put it back in myself — and broke it. I spent the year playing in England with it strapped up. When I came back, I had to get my knee cartilage trimmed, so I got my finger off at the same time.' Ged later accepted that spending a season in England with a finger permanently pointing straight ahead was cumbersome'. The England captain paid an affectionate tribute to his dad when he reached his century here on Saturday, looking to the sky and folding his middle finger under his palm to imitate the effect of his father's amputated digit. It has been his favoured celebration since before Ged passed away in 2020. But he pays tribute to his father every time he plays because of the manner in which he plays, because of the courage with which he plays, because of the way that his first thought is for the team not for individual successes or, indeed, his own wellbeing. Only Stokes, only an injured Stokes, ever looked like denying India a famous draw. He bowled his heart out for eight overs in succession in his morning spell, sacrificing himself with the old ball to keep his strike bowlers fresh for the new ball, which was due 17 overs into the day. From Stokes's first over, when Shubman Gill survived a loud appeal for lbw, and played and missed twice, the England captain, who is this series' leading wicket taker, looked like the most dangerous component of the attack. Stokes nearly claimed Gill's wicket in his second over when the India captain lofted a shot to extra cover. Ollie Pope leapt to try to catch it and got both hands to it at the top of his leap but the ball was just too high and it spilled from his fingers. After the match, Stokes admitted he had been in agony — but insisted 'pain is just an emotion' and said he was unlikely to miss the Oval Test It was not long before Stokes finally broke India's 188 third-wicket partnership by trapping KL Rahul lbw by rapping him on the pad of his back leg. Rahul was plum and Stokes did not even bother turning to look at the umpire as he ran towards the slips celebrating. By now, Stokes, who took five wickets in India's first innings, appeared to be in considerable pain. He grabbed at his shoulder after every delivery, wincing and trying to massage the joint with his left hand. When he was fielding in the covers, he let his right hand hang loose by his side to try to get some relief. Soon, it became obvious he could not field with his right hand after a delivery. But still he did not seek release. The first ball of his fifth over reared up off the pitch and hit Gill on the glove and then smashed into his helmet. Gill leapt away from the crease, shaking his hand. The Indians were not strangers to pain in this Test, either. Rishabh Pant batted with a broken foot earlier in the match. Stokes bowled on. The drinks break came and went and he resumed from the Sir James Anderson End. Some worried that it was madness, that he might be risking the kind of injury that would stop him travelling to Australia for the Ashes this winter and appearing at the Oval for the fifth Test this week. But Stokes does not think like that. 'The likelihood of me not appearing at the Oval is very unlikely,' he said after the game. Pain is just another adversary to be conquered. He only yielded when the new ball was due, his job and his duty done. 'How are you feeling physically?' Stokes was asked after the match. 'Been better,' he said with a grin. 'I said a few times to the guys out there, "Pain is just an emotion".'
