Air miles, altitude & Springboks - Scotland's arduous summer

ByThomas Duncan

BBC Sport Scotland

When it comes to challenges in rugby union, it does not get much tougher than the first half of Scotland's Nations Championship campaign.

Two away matches against sides ranked in the world's top five - Argentina and South Africa - plus Fiji at Murrayfield on consecutive weekends in July.

Throw in 18,000 air miles and the match against the world champions being at altitude after a long, hard season and the scale of the task facing Gregor Townsend's side becomes daunting.

However, it is also an opportunity to take significant scalps and build towards the 2027 World Cup, as well as trying to make a mark in rugby's new competition.

As Townsend explained: "It is a much tougher tour than ever before, certainly in the time I've been coach.

"Not only with the travel but the opposition. Three teams in the top nine in the world and one being the number one team [South Africa] in the world."

The Nations Championship is a new competition to pit the best of the northern hemisphere against the best of the southern hemisphere in non-World Cup years.

Structure and formal competition have been brought to what were previously one-off Test matches and series happening in the summer and autumn.

In July, the sides making up the Six Nations will each travel to play three of Argentina, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Fiji and Japan.

In November, that will be reversed as Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland, France and Italy host three games each.

Results will go towards two league tables, one for the northern sides and one for the southern.

At the end of the six rounds, nations will play the equivalent-ranked team in the other table, with points awarded to each hemisphere based on the results to determine who rules rugby union.

The two best sides in each table will meet in the final at Allianz Stadium in London at the end of November to crown an outright winner.

The first half of Scotland's campaign is something of an odyssey that crosses three continents and three time zones. Firstly, they will fly out to Madrid for a week's training camp at the end of June.

After that is complete, they will jet 6,200 miles to Argentina - hopefully with the big forwards in business class - to take on the Pumas in Cordoba on 4 July.

As soon as that game is done, they will pile back on to a bus and another plane to fly 5,000 miles to Pretoria, South Africa.

There they will have to acclimatise to the altitude, with the intimidating Loftus Versfeld Stadium sitting at 1,350m above sea level.

Once Scotland have taken on the physically unsparing Springboks on 11 July, the next day they will fly 6,000 miles home to be welcomed by their families. And another immense test against the natural talent of Fiji in Edinburgh.

The Fijians have elected to play their home games in the UK because most of their players are based in Europe.

"In terms of the travel, I think the players are more used to it than ever," Townsend told the BBC Radio Scotland Rugby Podcast.

"Especially guys playing in the URC and now in Europe. You get English teams going out to South Africa and have to play a game the week later.

"A lot of planning has gone into making it as efficient as possible, making sure we get the recovery right."

Although the logistics and level of opposition make this a daunting tour for Scotland, it is a challenge they are relishing.

While England, Ireland, Wales and others have been tourists to the southern hemisphere fairly regularly, Scotland have not.

Summers have mostly been filled with development tours to North and South America, which has allowed some players to break on to the Test stage.

However, they have not given them the chance to develop the battle-hardened edge that can be gained on away trips to storied venues like Eden Park or Loftus.

Scotland have not played the Springboks on their own patch since 2014. They have never beaten them on South African soil. Now they will be given the opportunity to.

Argentina ransacked Murrayfield in November, coming from 21-0 down to win. The last time Scotland toured there, in 2022, the Pumas won the series 2-1.

Fiji also beat Scotland in Suva last summer, albeit while the visitors were missing several players on duty with the British and Irish Lions.

Townsend says, although he enjoyed bringing through players on previous tours, this one is "not really about development".

There could scarcely be a harder test of Scotland's skills and depth. Only Grant Gilchrist and Blair Kinghorn have been given the summer off to rest.

"It does feel like a preparation for a World Cup with playing those top nations, the top 10 nations this summer for us, two in the top five," Townsend said.

"That's what we're going to have to face at some point as we get closer to the knockouts in the World Cup.

"We'll get our development through our games and the experiences we'll have in our games. But it's about putting our best performance out in those games and our best players will give us more chance of doing that."

Forwards: Ewan Ashman, Josh Bayliss, Magnus Bradbury, Gregor Brown, Scott Cummings, Rory Darge, Jack Dempsey, Freddy Douglas, Matt Fagerson, Zander Fagerson, Jonny Gray, Gregor Hiddleston, Will Hurd, Nathan McBeth, Liam McConnell, Elliot Millar Mills, D'arcy Rae, Alex Samuel, Pierre Schoeman, Seb Stephen, Rory Sutherland, Max Williamson.

Backs: Fergus Burke, Jamie Dobie, Darcy Graham, George Horne, Rory Hutchinson, Tom Jordan, Stafford McDowall, Kyle Rowe, Finn Russell, Ollie Smith, Kyle Steyn, Sione Tuipulotu, Duhan van der Merwe, Ben White.