Ollie Smith insists Sione Tuipulotu missing the Six Nations is the ‘biggest loss’ possible for Scoltand but he’s backed Stafford McDowall to shine in his absence.
Tuipulotu will miss the entirety of the competition due to a pectoral injury in a major blow to Scotland’s prospects of winning the Six Nations. The 27-year-old has been in exceptional form across the last 18 months and stepped up impressively when named Scotland captain by Gregor Townsend for the Autumn Nations Series.
Tuipulotu is widely regarded as one of the best inside-centre in the world and Smith knows better than most about the incredible talents of his teammate at club and international level. Smith - called up to the Scotland squad on Monday - believes some of Tuipulotu’s best qualities go under the radar but he’s backed McDowall to deputise.
McDowall is the favourite to get the nod in Scotland’s opener against Italy at Murrayfield on Saturday and Smith believes he can ‘slot straight in.”
READ MORE: Scotland call up Australia-born Alexander Masibaka for Six Nations
Asked about Scotland’s prospects in the Six Nations, Smith replied: “It's obviously a really difficult one with Sione being out. He's obviously your biggest loss with your captain going down, but there's so many people to step up. You look at the season Staff had last season and this season - he can just slot straight in. He's a massive presence in the ball-carrying defence as well, so he can definitely do a job in there if he's the one that's going to start. Obviously, I don't know but Sione is obviously a massive loss.
“Just the things you don't really see if you're not playing with him, like his communication off the ball and stuff like that, his eye to just sniff something out is second to none. So they'll miss that in that sense, but I think the rest of the squad's pretty strong. Scott Cummings as well is a big loss.
“They've been teetering on the edge for so many years now, and we've got three home games, obviously going away to France and England. France is obviously a difficult one, but we've shown that we can do it at Twickenham, so there's no reason why we couldn't get at least four wins, maybe five.”
Scotland’s aspirations of winning the Six Nations are undeniably boosted by starting the campaign with two games against Murrayfield.
Smith has been involved in Scotland squads that have fallen short in the past but insists there’s a determination to deliver on their potential this year.
On whether starting with two home games was an advantage, Smith said: “Yeah, definitely, and I think it was certainly the last Six nations I was involved in, when we beat England in the first game, and then Wales the second game. Lastly, when we beat them at Twickenham, the whole chat was, when these first two games, we can't go backwards from here, we can't lose the third game, and then obviously that's what happened, and we just didn't see it out.
“So it's obviously been really frustrating, and there's just the getting over the line has been difficult for us in the last few years, but I think we've definitely got the tools, and you've seen how we've played against the big teams, we've not managed to get over the line, but we've come pretty close, and hopefully do the job this time.”
Share