Townsend reveals Scotland summer tour plans and confirms no contact yet from Lions coach Farrell

Gregor Townsend has revealed the Scotland men’s national rugby team are planning a 2025 summer tour of the south seas which is likely to involve at least one Test match in Fiji.

The Scots opened their Autumn Nations Test Series with a win over the Fijians at Murrayfield this month and ended with victory against Australia last weekend. However, this would be the first time they have faced the Pacific Islanders on their home patch since 2017.

“The summer tour that we are organising is to go to the South Seas,” said Townsend. “So you'll have to get World Rugby to say that. Fiji, we believe, is definitely one of the games. And we're trying to add another game as well, whether that's in New Zealand or in the Islands. So it's meant to be two tests.

“We are looking at whether we can play a third or even a fourth game, just to build on what we did last summer, giving more players a chance to play, which we thought was a real success, playing those four games last summer.”

Asked if one of those Test matches could be against the All Blacks, Townsend answered: “No, probably a midweek game. You can work out who that could be.”

Scotland will of course be without whichever of their players are called up by Andy Farrell for the British & Irish Lions Tour of Australia. Townsend, who served as the touring side’s attack coach in South Africa in 2021, has said he is yet to speak to Farrell about the possibility of linking up with them in 2025 and wouldn’t be drawn on whether or not it was an opportunity he would be interested in.

He said: “He (Farrell) is still the Ireland coach. I think now is the time where he moves on from Ireland next week and becomes Lions coach. So no, there's not been any contact. We'll see. The focus is on Six Nations and Scotland. And also we have a tough tour as well. Fiji in the summer is going to be a very tough game against a team who are also in the top eight in the world.”

All of that is of course in the distance and Scotland’s next focus will be the 2025 Six Nations. Supporters will be hoping that, after a convincing win against Australia and a decent enough showing vs South Africa, this could finally be the year they mount a credible challenge for the title.

Asked how he thinks thing will be different in 2025 to this year’s tournament, Townsend answered: “I think first of all they've had the experience of the Six Nations last year. You can look at the whole campaign but I look at the Italy disappointment and then what we did the following week in Ireland. Already they've put that learning into place. A different group came on the summer tour which increased our depth.

“Now we've had different learnings here. But again it'll be another context in the Six Nations. We've got two home games to start. Our next challenge is Italy who played really well on Saturday night against the All Blacks and they obviously beat us in the last Six Nations. If we can come into the tournament with players in really good condition, keep looking after themselves over the next few weeks, playing well for their clubs and fit and available then that'll be great. But it's a new opponent, new tournament and you have to raise your standards once again.”