All international rugby matters, we are assured; there are no such things as friendlies in our game. Well, today just may be an exception.
You can tell that today’s inaugural Doddie Weir Cup game between Wales and Scotland at the Principality Stadium is an extra on rugby’s calendar, because Warren Gatland tried to wind up the tired old rhetoric this week.
Apparently, Gats believes that Wales didn’t get enough credit for their 34-7 defeat of Scotland in the 6 Nations at Cardiff. “It was not about a good Welsh performance but how poorly (Scotland) prepared,” he said this week. “That puts it in perspective for us.”
Of course, it’s the usual ludicrous hogwash. Firstly, no-one has ever suggested that Wales did anything but play excellently on that day in February – it was 34 points going on 50.
But anyone suggesting that Scotland’s abject preparation, complacency, over-confidence, whatever it was, did not have a marked bearing on the game is being disingenuous at best.
Gatland, who also took the time to have a completely unnecessary dig at new Scotland forwards coach Danny Wilson, generally seems to enjoy this schoolyard mind-games stuff, and it’s become as tiresome in a build-up to a Wales game in Cardiff as the manufactured furore about the Principality Stadium roof, which we’ve at least been spared this time as Scotland have no say, unlike in the 6 Nations.
But here’s an international game where – whisper it – the result doesn’t really matter. We’re in a World Cup dead zone so ranking points aren’t important. There’s no championship at stake. There’s no Murrayfield fortress sell-out record to maintain.
Most of all, there are 14 games, in Scotland’s case, until the World Cup in Japan next year. This first one is, by some margin, the least important of all of them.
Gatland is stirring the pot to raise interest because this is effectively one of those World Cup warm-up games, but a year out from the tournament.
Wales have shown as much with a selection that at least raises an eyebrow or two, despite Gatland’s assurance that it’s going to be a full blown test. Fair enough, he’s slotted many people into red shirts before and it’s turned out fine.
For Scotland, simply showing up – which they didn’t really do in February – getting some miles under the clock in a hostile environment for Adam Hastings at stand-off and Blair Kinghorn at full-back, maintaining the renaissance of Ali Price from his nightmare earlier in the year and running out what at last looks like a feasible long-term front row is the limit of our ambitions.
Hastings at 10 is possibly the most important of these tasks for today. But for some cameos in an emergency by Peter Horne, Scotland’s reserve stand-off in the last year has been Greig Laidlaw – not a reasonable arrangement for a World Cup or indeed should Finn Russell get damaged between now and next October.
From his couple of outings in the summer – most specifically in Resistencia against Argentina – and his blossoming this season, the 22-year-old son of Gavin deserves his opportunity this autumn to prove, as Townsend suggested, that’s he’s a rival to Finn rather than a back-up.
And Townsend’s probably conscious Russell needs a rival, as his inconsistency in the last year illustrates. For Scotland, Finn’s maybe had one half-decent performance in 2018, although of course it was a spectacular one in the Calcutta Cup.
Hastings isn’t exactly Mr Consistency either. Gatland will no doubt have had his defence study Glasgow’s loss to Saracens in the European Cup, the one game this season when Adam has looked less than assured.
His kicking game still needs a little work as well, but he doesn’t lack for self-confidence and has at least an extra yard of pace on Finn.
Kinghorn, still only 21, is also a work in progress as an alternative to the injured Stuart Hogg, even though that has come on leaps and bounds in the last 18 months.
Inventive, fast, big (6 foot 5 inches) and good in the air, his one glaring weakness has been an occasional lack of concentration in defence, notably when he was caught by George North playing for Edinburgh against Ospreys recently. No doubt the Welsh will have noted that.
They’ll also remember Price from February and seek to target him again. But it’s important that the sparkplug 9 puts that to bed today; in the games against France and Italy in the spring, his speed of delivery as a replacement was a less-noted factor in turning around both contests.
If Price fails, of course, he has George Horne now on his trail. Still not the finished article, the 23-year-old could be a revelation when the game breaks up through fatigue.
After two years of piecing together front rows, Townsend may have his first-choice trio out there today. Allan Dell, Stuart McInally and WP Nel were in outstanding form for Edinburgh in Europe, and some stability in this area – allowing for Zander Fagerson’s return from injury – would be very welcome.
Picking through the Scotland side, we’ve been talking about players aged 21, 22 or 23. Inexperience was supposed to be a major factor in the freeze in February, but that team had 333 caps compared to 288 for this one.
Wales, by contrast, have 638 caps, and are overwhelming favourites, no matter how many false flags are raised by Gatland.
A win in Cardiff for the first time since 2001 would certainly be nice, but it might carry an asterisk. A defeat won’t carry as much hurt as February or any in the last 17 years there. In November, Wales versus Scotland simply doesn’t matter as much.