Edinburgh play-maker Phil Burleigh is set to become the seventh Scottish player to make his Test debut this autumn after getting a late call up into the 23-man squad for today’s clash with the Wallabies.
The New Zealand-born 31-year-old is approaching the veteran stage of his career, but in his fourth season in Scotland has qualified on residency and assistant coach Matt Taylor believes he will slot in well if and when he is called upon, while his inclusion is part of a process of assessing options as the management begin to look ahead to the 2019 World Cup in Japan.
“Phil has played well for Edinburgh and he’s been in the squad for the entire time,” Taylor pointed out.
“He’s a very good distributor, an astute rugby player who knows the game very well. Even though he hasn’t played he’s been very good at looking out the opposition and giving points on that and he’s been very good at giving points on the starting team when running against him.
“He’s going to fit in really well and I think he’ll have a really good impact on the game when he gets his opportunity. We’re really excited for him.
“Two years out from the World Cup you’ve got to look at guys and where they are at. Phil’s someone we’ve had our eye on for a long time and he’ll make a good contribution to the group.”
If he gets off the bench he will join fellow backs Chris Harris and Byron McGuigan, back-row forward Luke Hamilton and front-row forwards Daryl Marfo, Jamie Bhatti and George Turner in getting a taste of Test action across these autumn Tests.
Today’s match meanwhile provides another New Zealand-born player to impress the coaches as 27-year-old Simon Berghan makes his first start, with Zander Fagerson dropping to the bench after facing the All Blacks last week, then spending this week recovering from the head knock he suffered during that match.
“Simon’s competed really well for Edinburgh throughout the year,” said Taylor.
“He’s a very athletic prop, good strength around the field, we’ve been very impressed with his ability to just genuinely play, he used to be a back rower. In both in attack and defence he’s really good about the field and certainly against Australia we need athletic bodies on the field because of their strengths and abilities to move the ball.
“Both him and Zander will have a really important part to play and Zander had a head knock so he had to go through protocols as well.”
Australian-born Taylor meanwhile said he expected the Wallabies to be fired up after their controversial defeat to England last weekend, but said the Scots were of a similar mindset.
“They’ll be disappointed that they lost and we’re disappointed that we lost. I think you’ll find two highly motivated teams (which) sets up for a really good Test match, similar to last week.”
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