Rob Robertson: Impressive ticket sales for Scotland's November Tests

Yet there is as strong a connection now between the fans and the Scotland national team as anytime during Gregor Townsend’s seven years in charge.

That’s not just a gut feeling it’s based on the best barometer of interest. Ticket sales. They are impressive for the four November Tests.

The matches against Fiji, South Africa and Australia are already 67,144 sell-outs. More than 50,000 tickets have gone already for the match against Portugal. Portugal for goodness sake! There was a time you wouldn’t open your curtains if the Portuguese team were playing in your garden.

Nicolas Martins (second left) celebrates scoring a try for Portugal against Wales at the World Cup last year (Image: PA) They are getting better and did qualify for the 2023 World Cup but didn’t get out of their group, then again neither did Scotland.

The reasonable price of tickets is a factor that has brought attending matches within reach of most rugby fans. For that, Scottish Rugby has to be congratulated. 

They started at £26.25 for adults for the Fiji and Portugal matches, £31.50 for the Australia game and £42 for the South Africa one. Under-18 prices started at just £13.13 for the Fiji and Portugal games, £15.75 for the Australian fixture and £21 for the match against the Springboks.

A sold-out Murrayfield on an international day brings in at least £5m to SRU coffers. For a governing body that recorded a £10.5m deficit last year the massive uptake in tickets for the four games this November is very good news.

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The South Africa game was always going to sell out but to add Fiji and to a lesser extent Australia to that list is impressive.

First up is Fiji on Saturday. The South Sea Islanders were here two years ago when Scotland beat them 28-12 at Murrayfield in front of a decent crowd of 56,000.

To upgrade that to a sell-out for a match that only Scottish-based players can take part in because it falls outside the international window - which means Finn Russell of Bath or Blair Kinghorn of Toulouse can’t play - shows the interest in the national team in general.

Scotland hosted Fiji in front of less than 60,000 two years ago. This weekend's match is a sell-out (Image: SNS) The second match is against world champions South Africa. It is the one that catches the eye. It is the fixture the rest of the rugby world will be watching. The hot ticket of the four. It is on a Sunday with a 4.10pm kick-off to fit into television schedules.

It is the one game that Townsend will field his strongest team. Feel free to disagree but I would expect Kinghorn at fullback, Duhan van der Merwe and Darcy Graham on the wings with captain Sione Tuipulotu and Huw Jones in the centres. Russell at 10 with Ben White at nine.

The front row will be Pierre Schoeman, Ewan Ashman and Zander Fagerson (surely nobody will argue with that) with Grant Gilchrist and Scott Cummings in the second row. A back row of Matt Fagerson, Rory Darge and Jack Dempsey looks tasty.

Then there is Portugal at Murrayfield the following Saturday. To sell more than 50,000 tickets against them in the first game at Murrayfield between these countries for 26 years is the best achievement of the lot for the marketing team at the national stadium.

The last time Scotland played Portugal at Murrayfield was in a 1998 Rugby World Cup qualifying group game.  Gregor Townsend started at fullback, Bryan Redpath was captain and Scotland won 85-11

There were only 5,691 hardy souls inside Murrayfield that day. There could be 10 times that amount this time round if tickets keep selling so well.

The score should be closer than 85-11 this time but Townsend can still afford to give his young uncapped and fringe players a chance to shine in a game that Scotland should win easily regardless who they field.

Last up is Australia, who are in the doldrums. Even installing Joe Schmidt as their new coach hasn’t made much of a difference.

Recent matches between Scotland and Australia have been tight affairs (Image: SNS) Even when the Wallabies were a much better side than they are now, their visit wouldn’t be a guaranteed sell-out. They came close when they were here two years ago when 65,286 watched them beat Gregor Townsend’s team by a single point.

When Scotland ended a 27-year losing streak against them in 2009 by beating them 9-8 - Matt Giteau missed a last-minute conversion to win the match for the Aussies- only 44,762 were inside the stadium so it should never be taken for granted that matches against them automatically sell-out.

The Wallabies aren’t the force they once were, and there are no superstars on their side like they had in the past like Michael Hooper, George Gregan and David Campese to attract Scotland fans, yet their visit to Murrayfield has still sold out.

Scotland is likely to be led against them by Melbourne-born Sione Tuipulotu who qualifies to switch rugby allegiances through his grandmother from Greenock.

That link will create a bit more interest in the fixture in Australia where rugby is way down the pecking order in terms of sporting popularity.

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Townsend will be looking for three wins out of four with a victory over the Springboks being a bonus but not out of the question. 

In the Fiji and Portugal games he will be hoping some young stars will make their mark and other more experienced players step up to show they are worth their selection. 

Two of the uncapped players, Ben Muncaster and Mosese Tuipulotu, play for Edinburgh who have won just two of their first six URC league fixtures so their confidence may not be at its highest heading into the international break. 

Ben Muncaster has enjoyed a good start to the season for Edinburgh, despite the club's mixed results (Image: SNS) Injury has hampered the rise through the ranks of back row forward Muncaster but the autumn is when he can make his breakthrough. 

With Hamish Watson no longer featuring in Gregor Townsend's plans, this is his chance to challenge Rory Darge for the Scotland number seven shirt. 

His club team-mate Mosese, brother of new Scotland captain Sione, is under pressure to perform for very different reasons.

There was an outcry when New Zealander Brendan Laney was fast-tracked into the Scotland team in 2001 without playing a club game in this country before he made his international debut.

All eyes will be on Mosese Tuipulotu if he is selected by Townsend (Image: SNS) Mosese hardly played for his previous club the Waratahs in Australia before signing for Edinburgh and has played just five games for the capital club yet finds himself in the Scotland squad already. Is he any better than other Scottish-qualified centres?  This autumn series will give an indication one way or the other.

It will be fascinating to see how another uncapped player, Tom Jordan of Glasgow Warriors does at international level.

I remember watching him play for Ayrshire Bulls in the 2021 Super 6 final when they beat the Southern Knights.

He was good, contributed 16 points, and was man of the match, but I never thought he would go on to be a major player for Glasgow Warriors and be called up by Gregor Townsend the moment he qualified through residency.

New Zealand-born Tom Jordan cut his teeth with Ayrshire Bulls before becoming a major player for Glasgow (Image: SNS) Russell remains first choice ten by a long way. The question the autumn will answer is whether Jordan or Adam Hastings becomes his regular understudy?

It will be interesting to see who Townsend picks for the first game against Fiji as Russell can’t play in it. 

Whatever happens in the four matches - Fiji, South Africa, Portugal and Australia- in November it is clear that the fans will be inside Murrayfield in their tens of thousands to cheer the team on.

Let’s hope Scotland perform well enough to send them all home happy.

And also don’t forget that the big attendances won’t end after the autumn Tests. At club level Glasgow Warriors have moved their fixture against Edinburgh from Scotstoun to Hampden on December 22 to cope with a massive demand for tickets. Six days later Edinburgh play Glasgow at Murrayfield rather than The Hive to allow more fans into the game.