Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend will send a further seven players home from the tour of the Americas as his side prepares for the toughest test of the trip against Uruguay next Saturday.
Sione Tuipulotu, the Glasgow Warriors centre who co-captained Scotland in the win over Chile, will be among seven players to return home.
He'll be joined by six of the seven exiles - Sale Sharks duo Gus Warr and Arron Reed, Leicester Tigers' Will Hurd, Dylan Richardson of The Sharks in South Africa, Scarlets lock Alex Craig and Bath number eight Josh Bayliss.
Lock Ewan Johnson, who plays for Oyonnax, has been given permission by the French club to remain with the Scotland squad, though he is unlikely to be available for selection next weekend.
Townsend explained: "Oyonnax have said that Ewan Johnson can stay with us and train. He might not be available to play, but it’s really helpful that they’ve said he can remain for another week with us. I thought he was excellent on Saturday.
“We’ve seen that with a number of players on their second caps. Some played really well on their first cap, but just the confidence of having that first cap and playing again - we have seen an improvement the longer they’ve been in our environment.
“So Ewan will be one player that is staying, but there are seven players going back.
"Sione is going to go back - that’s something we agreed a couple of weeks ago just with the new family.
"It was great that he was able to play on Saturday and captain the team, and finished the game having played well."
That leaves Townsend thin on the ground ahead of facing Uruguay, whose performances at the Rugby World Cup saw them beat Namibia, while also pushing France and Italy close.
Townsend said: "It’s hard to know where teams have grown and improved over the past 18 months.
"Uruguay were very good in the World Cup - I didn’t watch that many games in the World Cup outside of our pool, but I did watch France-Uruguay and I thought that they pushed France really close.
“Since then I’ve watched their games at the World Cup. They pushed Italy close. They don’t have that many players who play in Europe, so they’ve probably worked with their team for a number of years.
“It will be a massive game for them. They’ve played France and Argentina now, and although they’ve lost those games, they’ve had two Test matches against teams in the top 10 in the world and they’ve got another one on Saturday against us.
“I think that was always going to be the toughest game. We’ll obviously have to play them with our home-based players, but we have a strong group here, some experienced players, some players that are in single figures in caps but we believe we’ll have a strong team to finish the tour on a high.”
Scotland's callow squad only has three loosehead props, three tightheads, four locks and only two hookers.
So Townsend knows the three development players who made the trip ahead of the Chile match - Glasgow-bound tighthead Fin Richardson and scrum-half Ben Afshar, and Edinburgh lock Rob Carmichael - must be ready.
"They’re just one injury away from getting called up," the head coach said, while adding Patrick Harrison would earn a second cap in Montevideo.
“It was good to see Patrick [Harrison] getting his first cap. His family are out here and he played so well when he came in. So he and Ewan [Ashman] will be the hookers for Uruguay.”
Read more:
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- Scotland response to Chile's fast start pleases Gregor Townsend
The primary objectives in Uruguay must be to continue the winning run and escape without any serious injuries. But Townsend also hopes he can learn more about his players in this final week of a year-long season.
Asked about what he hopes to work on against the side ranked 17th in the world, he replied: "We didn’t get that many opportunities to defend against Chile, and I’m sure we’ll have to defend a bit more on Saturday.
"It’s the work we’ve been doing in defence, a lot of post-tackle work that the guys have shown in training, we want to bring that out next week.
"Some of our attack shape, some of our contact work has been really good in both the Canada and Chile games in particular. We just want to deliver that next week."
Townsend has dished out 14 new caps over the course of 2024 so far, with Peebles RFC product Harrison the latest in Santiago. Across the last 70 years only 2013 and 2021 (15 each) have seen more debuts for the national side.
Townsend knows how much it means to all of them, and their families.
He added: "I think now that’s 11 new caps [on tour] and it’s a massive honour for them.
"Their families are coming out for the games and they’ve talked about it in the group on how it’s been so special for them to achieve that, and see their families and see how proud their families are.
“Patrick Harrison’s family are out here, Ewan Johnson’s family are out here - I find it amazing that the families are travelling right across the world to see their sons play for Scotland.
“This tour means a lot for individuals that are winning their first caps and have got Test careers ahead of them."
It means a lot to the players, but Townsend reiterated how beneficial this trip has been for him to develop the national team's strength in depth.
He added: "It does mean a lot for us now to move our game forward, to improve our depth, and I’m really glad we’ve got another opportunity to do that next week.”
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