Scotland boss Gregor Townsend holds court on Dave Cherry status, Freddy Douglas and Six Nations training plans

The head coach sat down with Sunday newspapers this week to discuss his side’s prospects and covered a range of topics including the importance of keeping this group together, the return of Dave Cherry, why they will travel to Spain for a mid-tournament training break and the continuing development of young Freddy Douglas.

Scotland open their campaign at home to Italy a week on Saturday and are also at Murrayfield on week two when Ireland are the visitors. They will then head to Costa Blanca to prepare for the Calcutta Cup match at Twickenham on February 22. Another free week follows before they take on Wales in Edinburgh on March 8 ahead of the grand finale against France in Paris one week later.

It’s Townsend’s eighth Six Nations campaign in charge and he believes continuity of selection will be an important factor as the championship unfolds. He cites the 27-13 win over Australia in the final autumn Test, a match in which the Scotland starting XV boasted a combined total of 690 caps, or an average of 46 caps per player. Australia, by contrast, picked a team with 405 caps, an average of 27 per man.

Keeping the team together brings ‘added value’

“The age profile is where we want it to be,” said Townsend. “There's more and more experience in our group with cap numbers but also there's a good age profile of younger players knocking on the door which really energises the group at times. We saw that in the summer and in November and it keeps pushing those experienced players to keep playing well to stay in the team.

“There is a lot of value to a team playing regularly together. We'll be over 700 caps, I would imagine. I think it was 690 the last game we played, so if everybody's available that's going to move on to over 700 which we'd never been in that situation before.

“I remember a few years ago we'd be on around 200-300 caps and looking at Ireland and Wales at the time, who were close to 800-900 caps as a group. So yes, it's a great profile and the fact they've had those shared experiences, sometimes good, sometimes bad, really helps when they come back together again.”

Cherry ready to blossom again

The enigmatic Dave Cherry has not played for Scotland since stepping off the bench against champions South Africa in the white hot heat of Marseille at the 2023 Rugby World Cup. In the gap between that match and Scotland’s second of the tournament, against Tonga in Nice, the Edinburgh hooker fell down stairs at the team hotel, suffered a concussion and played no further part in the competition.

Townsend ended Cherry’s 16-month international exile on Wednesday by naming him in his squad for the Six Nations and quashed any notion that the 34-year-old had in some way been punished for what happened in France.

“He fell down the stairs,” said Townsend. “It was unfortunate to miss a World Cup. It was a head injury and we took that very seriously. It meant that he wasn't going to be able to be available for that next game.

“Any injury would have been tough to handle. One away from the rugby field was probably even more disappointing for Dave. I remember it was like a double injury because Stu McInally came out and then got injured in training. It's just unfortunate it happened.

“He's obviously not been involved in the squad since then but that's really been down to at times him being injured when we came to picking squads or the form of other hookers. Now he's fit, he's playing well and he's got back in the squad so we're looking forward to seeing what he brings - that experience, set-piece solidity and toughness.

“I'm sure he'll be desperate - maybe he thought the chance would have gone, so he'll be even more determined to make the most of it this time.”

Warm weather training can aid Twickenham history bid

For the fourth year in a row, Townsend will take the squad to Spain for a warm weather training camp. The difference this time is it is happening mid-tournament as Scotland seek an unprecedented third consecutive victory at Twickenham.

“Before the England game we're going to go to the same place we've been to before, Oliva Nova in Spain,” explained the coach. “It's going to be our fourth occasion there.

“It's worked really well for us. It's tended [on previous occasions] to be before the first game when we've had an away game. We have gone to Twickenham from Spain twice and last year we went from Spain to Wales and we've usually performed well on the back of that week's training.

“Not only are you guaranteed training outdoors and better weather but there's a real bubble mentality. There are no distractions. Guys aren't going home in the evenings or on days off.

It's worked for us so we decided this year because of the way the England game falls that we can get the players out at the weekend [February 15-16]. Some will be playing that weekend [the French-based trio of Blair Kinghorn, Jonny Gray and Ben White] but there's no games in England and we'll be able to rest our starting players. So it gives us a really good preparation going to Twickenham.”

Special role earmarked for Freddy Douglas

Freddy Douglas experienced a whirlwind autumn, making his full Scotland debut before he had even played a competitive match for Edinburgh then signing his first professional contract. Unfortunately for the teenage flanker, he suffered an ankle injury while making his first start for Edinburgh, against Gloucester in the Challenge Cup in December.

Douglas, 19, was a shock inclusion in the full Scotland squad for the Autumn Nations Series, and came on to win a full cap against Portugal, but Townsend thinks he will play in the Under-20 Six Nations when he returns to full fitness in February.

“I think if he is back around that time, the rugby he'll be playing will be either for Edinburgh or for the under-20s before he comes into our thoughts again. I really hope he times it so that he can have a big part in that Under-20s Six Nations campaign.

“We've worked with that group a lot this year. We've trained with them and we'll be training against them next week. It's a good under-20 squad and it'll be the first time for a few years that a full international has played under-20s so that would give them a big boost.”

Release of English and French-based players remaining a sticking point

Townsend raised concerns last year about the limited time he had working with his English-based players ahead of the Calcutta Cup. The coach said he didn’t think it was right for the “integrity” of the Six Nations that the likes of Bath’s Finn Russell was prevented from being allowed to train with the national squad during the tournament’s so-called “fallow weeks.

Townsend is stymied by World Rugby’s “Regulation 9” which governs the release of players for international matches and the coach isn’t expecting any progress on that front this season, meaning his time working with Russell, Saracens’ Fergus Burke, Leicester’s Will Hurd and Northampton’s Rory Hutchinson, as well as the French-based trio, will be curtailed during the free weeks after round two and before round four.

“I don't think anything has changed,” said Townsend. “We don't have a huge amount of English-based players in our squad and some of them will probably be asked to play this year with the Premiership Cup. Last year some of the players didn't play and weren't allowed to train with us. Whatever the situation is, we'll just have to adapt.

“It's more the second fallow week than the first one that's the issue. The first one, because you've got that first two games back-to-back, it’s about rest. Yes, we will train and get the guys in for a couple of days.

But it's that second one when you really want that opportunity to have cohesion and bring a squad together. We're always going to be challenged with players going back to France or England. In the past they were going back to play games. Now they're maybe just going back to rest.”