Coach: Gregor Townsend

Captain: Jamie Ritchie

Home Stadium: BT Murrayfield

So often the bridesmaid, Scotland enters this season’s tournament with a sense of great hope that this will be their year. 

First up is a trip to Twickenham for the 129^th instalment of the Calcutta Cup. Although England leads the series 82 – 46 in terms of retaining the trophy, Gregor Townsend’s side has held the recent advantage winning four of the past five years. 

In this span, there has been a draw and a victory at Twickenham with their last loss in London coming back in 2017. 

Despite now having the psychological advantage over the old enemy England. Scotland has struggled mightily with Ireland and Wales winning just five of their previous thirty outings against their Celtic brethren. 

Against France, they have fared marginally better winning five of the past fifteen encounters yet heading to Paris this season against one of the World Cup favourites is a mountainous task. 

The one side Scotland has consistently beaten is Italy, who will have a spring in their step due to the emergence of several young stars. 

2022 Tale Of The Tape 

2022 was a mixed bag of results for Scotland as has been the case since the turn of the millennium. 

Two wins from five in the Six Nations saw them through to a 4^th place finish which has been par for the course over the years. Yet fans and pundits alike cannot help but be left feeling that there is more in this Scotland squad given their ability to pick up wins away in France and England. 

So very nearly collecting a series victory in the southern hemisphere during their summer test series with Argentina. Townsend’s experimental side, short of star players Finn Russell and Stuart Hogg, slipped to an agonising three-point defeat to drop the series 2 – 1. 

As the European summer dissipated and the Southern Hemisphere’s big guns ventured north. Two wins from four including a complete obliteration of Argentina and two close losses to Australia and New Zealand respectively showed this squad is capable of mixing it with the best. 

Yet both losses will serve as a reminder that getting close is not good enough for a team with title-winning aspirations. 

Biggest Strength 

Usually headlining the Scottish strengths is their sublime attacking threats of Finn Russell, Darcy Graham and Stuart Hogg. 

Yet this season, the Scottish forward pack look to have found their mojo in what could prove to be their biggest gain in quite some time. 

Given the recent performances of both Glasgow and Edinburgh in the United Rugby Championship, Challenge Cup and Champions Cup. Scottish fans should be excited about the power and skill being shown by both sides’ forwards. 

Edinburgh in particular gave a good insight into how to manage the big physical English forwards as they thoroughly thumped Saracens in their recent Champions Cup fixture. 

Glasgow on the other hand has become one of the form teams in the URC having beaten both big South African sides such as the Bulls and Stormers this season. 

Scotland’s inability to match the Irish and Welsh packs over the past decade has often been their biggest downfall regarding Six Nations aspirations. 

Yet this season’s squad which includes the monstrous second-row options of the Gray brother Richie and Jonny as well as Grant Gilchrist who is in the form of his career. All three players offer a hard edge to the Scots to go with their big front row and ball-poaching back row. 

Should the Scottish pack match or even outdo their opponents this season, their backline is more than capable of putting up points. 

Potential Weakness 

Certainly, a left-field choice for the biggest weakness but given their track record of being unable to maintain consistency across the Championship, the Scottish psyche could prove to be their downfall. 

This Scottish side is talented and, on their day, capable of beating any team in the Championship. Yet as has been seen over the years, the highs of big wins are often instantly undone by a significant loss the following week. 

In perhaps direct reflection of their coach and playmakers, this Scottish team has the potential to be brilliant. 

Key to enforcing this consistency will be mercurial flyhalf Finn Russell who has the propensity to fluctuate between World Class and head-scratchingly average. 

Most Valuable Player 

Given Darcy Graham’s unfortunately there is little debate as to who Scotland’s MVP will be. 

As listed above, Scotland goes how Finn Russell goes. Scotland will be hard to deal with if he is on song and turn on the magic. Should he have an off day then chances are so will Scotland. 

Yet given the addition of Munster flyhalf Ben Healy to the squad, Russell will be hyper-aware of the potential for Townsend’s eyes to wander to the new option. 

Given the tumultuous relationship between the two which has seen Russell miss out on selection more than once, Russell will need to be on top form to remain in control. 

Away from the known names, centre Sione Tuipulotu could have the biggest impact of all given his scintillating form for Glasgow of late. 

A physical ball carrier who possesses all of the subtle skills of offloading and chip kicks. The Australian-born bulldozer could fix the long-time problem position for the Scots in a vital World Cup year. 

Prediction 

Predicting where Scotland will finish is like spinning a globe and pointing a location for your next trip. You could end up in Cabo or you might find yourself in Antarctica. 

Squint one way and they could end with four victories, yet equally, the wooden spoon could be on the table. 

Given their fixture list a win at Twickenham in round one is very realistic whilst welcoming an unknown Welsh side to Murrayfield could see them two from two. From here it would be sensible to suggest back-to-back losses to the top two sides in the World in France and Ireland before rebounding with a home victory over Italy. 

As such Scotland will finish with three wins which will be good enough for third place. 

Squad 

Forwards: Ewan Ashman, Josh Bayliss, Simon Berghan, Jamie Bhatti, Fraser Brown, Dave Cherry, Andy Christie, Luke Crosbie, Jack Dempsey, Matt, Zander Fagerson, Grant Gilchrist, Jonny Gray, Richie Gray, Cameron Henderson, WP Nel, Jamie Ritchie, Pierre Schoeman, Javan Sebastian, Sam Skinner, Rory Sutherland, George Turner, Hamish Watson 

Backs: Chris Harris, Ben Healy, Stuart Hogg, George Horne, Huw Jones, Blair Kinghorn, Sean Maitland, Ruaridh McConnochie, Stafford McDowell, Ali Price, Cameron Redpath, Finn Russell, Ollie Smith, Kyle Steyn, Sione Tuipulotu, Duhan van der Merwe, Ben White

Written by Philip Bendon