Tom Jordan gives Gregor Townsend welcome selection headache ahead of Scotland v Australia

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The Glasgow Warriors player has impressed at full back for Scotland in their Autumn Nations Series matches with South Africa and Portugal.

Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend says that Tom Jordan will definitely ‘come into contention’ for a starting XV place when Scotland welcome Australia to Murrayfield.

The Glasgow Warriors back, who will join Bristol Bears next season, was called into the line up against South Africa due to injuries and gave a good account of himself. Then, against Portugal, he was named Player of the Match in the 59-21 victory after another fine performance.

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Unfortunately though, his two best positions are at stand off and full back - positions where Townsend is blessed with world class quality in the shape of Finn Russell and Blair Kinghorn. Russell will be playing at ten if fit but at full-back and on the wings he now has a very real and very welcome selection headache.

Speaking after the Portugal win, Townsend said: "I think Blair Kinghorn has been our starting fullback now since the World Cup and has played really well and has played very well at club level. He wasn't available against Fiji and we played him on the wing against South Africa because of the injuries we picked up in that position but we'll be considering Blair very strongly as fullback and hopefully giving him the opportunity to start there and build on the great season he's had at Toulouse and obviously the end of last season.

"Tom definitely comes into the mix and I think his versatility puts him in a strong position to be in our squad. Whether we go 5-3 or 6-2 he'll be competing with Adam for that spot on the bench lf he doesn't make the team. We've probably seen his versatility be more at 10 and centre with the ability to play fullback and now he's a player who can play all three positions. 

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“I think you've got to have competition to make the players in the team know that they'll have to play well but that's a great thing that Tom’s pushing them hard and opportunities come in different forms. He grabbed that opportunity against Fiji because there was an injury and would we have started him at fullback against South Africa if he hadn't had that opportunity? Probably not. 

"We might have looked at doing something different and now he's a genuine option for us at fullback and we'll be competing with Blair and Kyle Rowe for that position. We haven't seen him as much at 10 but we know he can play 10 and he's done that most of the season.”

Victory against the Wallabies will be the difference between this Autumn Nations Series being classed as an overall success or failure. Scotland have had some memorable wins against Australia in recent years at Murrayfield but they are revitalised under former Ireland and All Blacks head coach Joe Schmidt and Townsend is expecting a very difficult test.

He said: “They've improved. Just playing the Rugby Championship you're better on the back of that because you've got six games against three of the top teams in the world now. Argentina are obviously in the top five and South Africa and New Zealand are in the top two. So getting that experience to play each of those teams twice will make you better.

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“Joe Schmidt, who's a brilliant coach, has spent time with them now and they have some really good players. They've always had a big playing base. They may have gone through a little dip but they've got all their squad available and they've even been able to make changes in the back of England and bring in guys like Skelton and Kerevi and could make them stronger going into the game. It's going to be a very tough game.

"We know they're sitting about the same as in world rankings so we see it as a real challenge for us, a team that's full of confidence after a win too. I think we'd be disappointed if we didn't get a win with all the work that's gone in and what we've learned from that South Africa game and the frustrations of not beating them. It would be very disappointing if we were to come away with a defeat but we'll have to play really well to win.”

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