A SUNDAY encounter with the All Blacks is the highlight of Scotland’s Autumn Nations Series 2022, in which Gregor Townsend’s team will also meet Australia, Fiji and summer opponents Argentina on consecutive weekends.
All four games will be held at BT Murrayfield and shown live on Amazon Prime.
“The Autumn Nations Series provides a great opportunity for us to take on some of the leading teams in the southern hemisphere in front of our supporters as we look to improve ahead of next year’s Six Nations and the Rugby World Cup,” Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend said.
“We know Australia well having played them a number of times over recent years and it’s always a special occasion when they come to BT Murrayfield.
“Fiji are an exciting team to watch with their free flowing and powerful brand of rugby, and they can be one of the best teams in the world when they get their game right.
“Our contest against New Zealand will be eagerly anticipated by our supporters and players alike, providing world-class opposition. We’re really looking forward to playing them after missing out on the opportunity on two occasions over the past two years due to Covid.
“Our final fixture will be against Argentina, which will be another familiar challenge for our squad on the back of this summer’s tour to South America. This final fixture means we will have played three out of the four Rugby Championship sides in a month which will be a great experience for our players.”
AUTUMN NATIONS SERIES SCHEDULE
Sat 29 October: Australia 5.30pm
Sat 5 November: Fiji 1pm
Sun 13 November: New Zealand 2.15pm
Sat 19 November: Argentina 3.15pm
How can it be a bit “meh”? It’s not as if we’ve lined up Peru, Saudi Arabia and Uganda to play against.
In a way, 4 games is good as it allows all these folk who say they can’t get tickets, to go. The basic economics is such that the income is needed to keep the likes of Schooooo, Hamish Watson etc playing here. The sru will never please everyone, that much is clear
I like the idea of a game outside the official test window against good opposition, it’s a fantastic chance for players to put their hand up, and it forces Toony not to pick Chris Harris and Stuart Hogg every game.
Potential team for Australia:
Pierre Schoeman – George Turner – Zander Fagerson – Scott Cummings – Grant Gilchrist – Jamie Ritchie – Rory Darge – Jack Dempsey – Ali Price – Blair Kinghorn – Rufus McLean – James Lang – Mark Bennett – Darcy Graham – Oli Smith
Stuart McInally – Oli Kebble – Simon Berghan – Sam Skinner – Matt Fagerson – Ben Vellacott – Ross Thompson – Sione Tuipolotu
I’d Expect 3 out of 4 wins and good game against the All Blacks.
Change of team as well.
Huw Jones – Darcy Graham – Mark Bennett – Cameron Redpath – Duhan Van Der Merwe – Finn Russell – Ali Price – Jack Dempsey – Hamish Watson – Jamie Ritchie – Scott Cummings – Grant Gilchrist – Zander Fagerson – George Turner – Pierre Schoeman
Chris Harris – Blair Kinghorn – Ben Vellacott – Matt Fagerson – Sam Skinner – Simon Berghan – Rory Sutherland – Stuart McInally
I’d pay to watch that XV play.
Highlights for me are Australia and Argentina. They will be great games. The NZ game for me is a bit of a dead duck. Been to too many where we are overshadowed by them being “the All Blacks”.
Disagree!We’ll have played Aus and arg someting like 8/9 times combined by then since we last played NZ so surely a bit of variety is good.Should we just give up ever playing them as we’ve never beaten them? (and we came very close last time out remember).
My gripe is four matches is overkill surely.I thought the fourth game last year was a one-off.Will the Aus game be outwith the international window so once again no Premiership or french based players allowed?
That’s fair enough. But the All Blacks have become World Rugby’s marketing tool IMO. I’m not really interested in the approach being taken with NZ rugby at the moment.
Currently, they are trading on an old reputation…
Seems a bit “meh”, particularly with the all blacks on the Sunday. Perhaps I’m just tired of it all now, particularly after the recent insipid six nations showing. 4 trips to Murrayfield is a lot, so the season ticket’s going. I can’t drum up the enthusiasm for a load of practice matches for a World Cup where we are going out in the group stage anyway.
I feel bad even writing that, but we need a root and branch change in the organisation and have done for years, otherwise professional failure will continue.