Pete Murchie is backing Sione Tuipulotu to make the British and Irish Lions squad. Image: © Craig Watson –
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PETE MURCHIE is confident it won’t a case of “out of sight, out of mind” when it comes to Glasgow players being selected for the British and Irish Lions squad.
Lions head coach Andy Farrell will reveal his selection on Thursday for this summer’s touring party to Australia, with fears among some supporters that injuries and other factors might cause Scottish representation to be much smaller than had been initially expected.
All of those widely considered to be virtual certainties to be picked from the two Scottish pro clubs – Sione Tuipulotu, Huw Jones, Zander Fagerson and Duhan van der Merwe – are currently injured and at different stages of their rehabilitation.
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Tuipulotu and Jones could return for Glasgow this weekend for the URC match away to Benetton in Treviso although that seems less of a guarantee than seemed the case a few weeks ago.
Regardless, Murchie believes the Warriors trio all have “enough credit in the bank” to warrant selection despite their recent inactivity.
The defence coach said: “We’ve always had pretty good representation across a few tours now. Let’s hope we get as many as possible. I think there’s a good few that have got a good shout. Sometimes there’ll be tight decisions all over the place, I’m sure, for those that are selecting the squad. But I think there’s a number of our guys that would likely have been involved in conversations. It just depends how they want the make-up of the squad to look.
“Do you take three looseheads? Do you take two looseheads? Do you take a hybrid back row? Do you take fly-half cover? There’s all these things that sometimes aren’t completely in your control, depending on that final make-up of the squad. But hopefully we get a good number contested.
“I’d like to think that they [those currently injured] all have enough credit in the bank for what they’ve done over a prolonged period of time and what they’ve done at the top end of the game very recently. We’re talking about injuries where we’re expecting them to be able to play a full part in training and all of [the Lions’] games. If that wasn’t the case, then maybe it’s a different story. But you could argue they’re going to be coming back fresh and at the right time of the year to still get a good run of games behind them.”
Tuipulotu had been spoken about as a possible Lions captain before he sustained the pec muscle that kept him out of the Six Nations and beyond. And Murchie believes having Scotland forward coach John Dalziel as part of Farrell’s backroom team can only be a good thing.
He added: “You’ve got JD in there who I’m sure will be helping the Scottish cause. He’s seen what Sione’s done on the big stage over the last couple of years and what he’s done at Glasgow.
“So, I’m sure Sione won’t have been forgotten about ahead of selection time. JD’s the only Scottish coach going so it’s definitely important to have somebody in the room who knows the players really, really well and can give that level of feedback to the other coaches.”
Warriors will pack a chartered flight full of just about anyone fit enough to travel for a double-header comprising an ‘A’/under-23 match with Benetton ahead of Saturday evening’s main event in the URC. Having the past week off has not greatly eased the injury situation, with none of those who missed the defeat to the Bulls nailed-on certainties to return this weekend.
It looks increasingly likely that Gregor Brown has played his last game of the season, Jack Mann has played his last game for the club before moving to Gloucester and that Zander Fagerson’s future involvement this season depends on how deep into the URC playoffs Glasgow go.
On Tuipulotu and Jones, Murchie added: “They’re close. Obviously with not having a game last week, we just need to see what happens in the next couple of days. But they’re both close and have been involved in training a lot more. We want to see what today and tomorrow looks like before we make a final decision on that.”
On Zander: “I think he’s progressing well, but I think it would be touch and go [whether he plays again this season]. Obviously depending on how deep you go is the obvious big part of that as well. Hopefully we’re talking that it’s as deep as it can be and then obviously your chances go up. So it dictates whether we’ve got six, seven weeks left or five weeks left. So that’s going to play a part. But it’s not going to cause any concerns around his Lions selection. He’ll be good for that.”
On Jack Dempsey: “Jack’s progressing but he’s not going to [play] this week and I very much doubt next week as well, but he has ramped up his rehab. That’s getting close to being able to make a firm call on what that’s going to look like in terms of his participation past that. But it’s good that he’s ramping it up pretty significantly from what he has been in the last couple of weeks.”
On Josh McKay: “He’s not going to be right for this week, but it’s a minor situation with him. His ankle is absolutely fine, it’s just a little bit of a complication with prior surgery that’s been done on that. But he’s well on the road to recovery now and hopefully he’ll be available for next week.”
One player who has been training with Warriors is Jack Oliver. And Murchie hoped a deal for the Scottish-qualified former Ireland under-20 scrum-half could be concluded soon.
He added: “He’s been training with us for a number of weeks now. Obviously, he’s an option for us moving forwards. There’s history there in terms of his Scottish roots. Munster have allowed him to come to us for a period of time now and he’s just been embedded in our squad and he’s done well. Hopefully there’ll be something done there where he can stay around longer term.”
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