Scotland leap to defence of 'underrated' veteran as Jamie Ritchie omission explained

While a younger buck like Max Williamson is staking a strong claim and is joined on the bench by Gregor Brown, who can cover the back row and the second row, it is the “underrated” Gilchrist who joins Cummings in the boiler room once again for Scotland.

Cummings, at 29, is in his prime and will win his 46th cap in Rome. Gilchrist, at 35, is on the brink of his 85th full international appearance and the seemingly evergreen Edinburgh man drew a glowing tribute from Townsend as he explained his selection decision.

“Max [Williamson] is back into the form he showed last season when he played so well in the Springbok game,” said the coach. “And he had taken a while to get back to that because he had a couple of injuries.

“He just came back for the summer tour. I thought his performance against Tonga [in November] was excellent and he's shown at Glasgow how well he can play.

“But Grant's been excellent. Grant is underrated by a lot of people in Scotland, let's say. Watch his performances, they're outstanding. Grant goes up against the All Blacks and puts on a wonderful performance and people still say, ‘well, why are we not picking a younger guy?’ Well, Grant is delivering. And Grant delivers much more than just what you see in terms of his contact work, his carrying, his defence.

“It's his lineout calling, his lineout expertise, what he brings to the group as well. We shouldn't be just saying, ‘oh, he's a 35-year-old, let's move on to someone else’. No, World Cup-winning teams, if you look at the South Africans, if you look at teams that have done well, a lot of those guys are 34, 35-year-olds and they're appreciated for what they do.

“It's great that we've got Max and Gregor [Brown], who obviously can cover second row and back row, but we know how important Grant is to us and we really hope he'll play for another few years because he's that important.”

The Jamie Ritchie explanation

Townsend insists the stats back him up. “He's so consistent. His contact work, his tackling, his ball carrying is very good,” the head coach continued. “You watch back that New Zealand game and when he carried, he went through defenders and then you've got his lineout ability. I've already talked him up, but I'm more delighted he came back from [a quad] injury as well.

“He puts in so much work during the season. The amount of games he plays for Edinburgh, his training sessions, he's full on.”

One notable absentee from the Scotland 23 for Rome is former captain Jamie Ritchie. Townsend said the Perpignan flanker was unlucky not to make the cut.

“Yeah, very close. Jamie's playing, I think, tremendous rugby. He's a captain at Perpignan. To go through that period when Perpignan was struggling and they relied on him, they made him captain, he was doing some coaching, and since November Perpignan has turned a corner and Jamie's been a big part of that. Very close.

“I think the cohesion of that Glasgow back row, what Gregor is doing off the bench, it made it obviously difficult for Jamie, especially when we went to 5-3, but we know how well Jamie can play.

“He played really well last year's Six Nations, played very well in the Tonga game. And guys like Freddy [Douglas] too. There are people that are knocking on the door that could get opportunities later in this tournament.”