Yep, I definitely found this to be a useful article and will look forward to the others that Kevin is doing during the week :). I find them useful due to discovering SQ players that I didn't even know about (like McBeth and Pheasants from the above article).charltom wrote: ↑Mon Apr 12, 2021 4:09 pmLooks like Kevin found this food for thought (or was thinking about it at the same time) and is working his way through a much better version, starting here: https://www.scottishrugbyblog.co.uk/202 ... yUD4ncdG_ccharltom wrote: ↑Fri Apr 09, 2021 1:28 pm The various bits of chat about up and coming players got me thinking about one of my favourite topics... future Scotland RWC squads.
Taking current squad members and prospects, and working out how old everyone will be in September 2023, I reckon only Willem Nel will not make it to that RWC. So, assuming the oldest someone is likely to play in a RWC is 34 (just for the sake of argument) we'll have a first four XVs in 2023 that look a bit like this (with ages; sorry about formatting. Let me know if I've missed someone - I usually do - and some of the back three are swapped around):
1 Sutherland 31 Schoeman 29 Kebble 31 Dell 31
2 Turner 30 McInally 33 Brown 34 Cherry 32
3 Z.Fagerson 27 Berghan 32 McCallum 27 Rae 28
4 Cummings 26 Toolis 31 R.Gray 34 Davidson 26
5 J.Gray 29 Gilchrist 33 Craig 26 McKenzie 35
6 Ritchie 27 Skinner 28 Thomson 32 Bayliss 25
7 Watson 31 Crosbie 26 Boyle 23 Miller 27
8 M.Fagerson 25 Haining 33 Bradbury 28 G.Graham 31
9 Price 30 G.Horne 28 Steele 30 Dobie 22
10 Russell 30 Hastings 26 Weir 32 vdWalt 29
11 vdMerwe 28 D.Taylor 34 McGuigan 34 Hoyland 29
12 Redpath 23 Johnson 30 Lang 28 Scott 33
13 Harris 32 H.Jones 29 Hutchinson 27 Bennett 30
14 Maitland 34 D.Graham 26 L.Jones 35 Blain 23
15 Hogg 31 Kinghorn 26 Forbes 24 McLean 23
GT can definitely select a pretty strong squad from that.
Then in 2027, it's remarkable how many of the big boys are still around. Sadly that may be just beyond Hoggy's career at 35 (but my well not be), but you'd have all of these two XVs at the right sort of age, even ignoring any new players coming through. Still looks pretty decent, and by then experienced, to me:
AGE AT 2027 RWC (start)
1 Schoeman 33 Thornton 30
2 Ashman 27 Turner 34
3 Z.Fagerson 31 McCallum 31
4 Cummings 30 Davidson 30
5 J.Gray 33 Craig 30
6 Skinner 32 Bayliss 29
7 Ritchie 31 Crosbie 30
8 M.Fagerson 29 Bradbury 32
9 Dobie 26 G.Horne 32
10 Russell 34 Hastings 30
11 vdMerwe 32 McLean 27
12 Redpath 27 Johnson 34
13 H.Jones 33 Hutchinson 31
14 D.Graham 30 Blain 27
15 Forbes 28 Kinghorn 30
It will be interesting to see how the lads from the under 20s etc grow/improve and maybe force their way into selection in years to come, I see the boy Mak Wilson mentioned in the above article too.
