Townsend calls for Kinghorn and Van der Merwe to show ‘huge determination’ against Wales
Gregor Townsend expects Blair Kinghorn and Duhan van der Merwe to be fuelled by “huge determination” against Wales after they were restored to Scotland’s starting XV for Saturday’s Six Nations meeting in Cardiff.The British & Irish Lions duo were high-profile omissions from the 23 for the first two championship matches against Italy and England amid question marks about their form.The Toulouse back Kinghorn will start at full-back in place of Tom Jordan, who drops to the bench, while Van der Merwe, Scotland’s record try-scorer, returns at wing to take over from Jamie Dobie, who is out due to injury.“Blair was back playing on Sunday night for Toulouse so it’s good to get an outlet when you’ve not been selected,” said the head coach after naming his squad to face Wales.“He played really well in that game and he’s recovered quickly.
Duhan’s trained really well and very much been part of our squad, so there’ll be a freshness around both of them coming back in and huge determination to play well.“Like any player, you want to be part of the squad and for those players that have been in our squad for a few years, it’ll be tough for them to take.But they’ve backed the team and they understand the reasons why we had different selections going into our opening two games.And now they have an opportunity to represent their country again.”There are three further changes to the Scotland XV that started the 31-20 victory over England last Saturday, all of them in the pack.
Dave Cherry replaces George Turner at hooker, with the latter dropping to the bench.Back-rowers Jamie Ritchie and Jack Dempsey miss out through injury, with Matt Fagerson coming in at No 8 and the versatile Gregor Brown, who started in the second row last weekend, moving to blindside flanker.Max Williamson comes in to take Brown’s place in the second row.Scotland, who have been training in Spain this week, are favourites to defeat an ailing Wales side who have lost heavily to France and England in their opening two matches.“I’m sure last week a lot of people thought England were clear favourites [against Scotland], so the game is not about predictions and previous form,” said Townsend.
“It’s a lot about what you do in those 80 minutes, and we’ve got to make sure that we get our game out,”For Wales, Gabriel Hamer-Webb will make his debut, the Leicester wing one of four changes from the side well-beaten by France last Sunday as Steve Tandy’s side seek to end a sorry run of 13 straight Six Nations defeats,The Bath-born Hamer-Webb, who represented England Under-20s in the Six Nations, has made eight appearances for Leicester since moving from Cardiff last summer,The 25-year-old qualifies for Wales through his Cardiff-born mother,Tandy said: “Gabe has really impressed me in the way he’s attacked training, the way he’s learnt, the way he’s adapted and the way he’s just settled into the squad.
His training efforts have been outstanding,Then when you dig into his background at Leicester, even when he wasn’t in the team, everyone said he was an amazing team player,“He also kept pushing, he never gave up and then when he had his Leicester opportunity he took it with two hands, and now this opportunity has come up and it’s thoroughly deserved,”Hamer-Webb takes over from the Scarlets wing Ellis Mee and Sam Costelow replaces Dan Edwards at outside-half,Costelow has not played for Wales since the defeat by Japan at Kitakyushu in July.
Wales: L Rees-Zammit (Bristol), G Hamer-Webb (Leicester), E James, J Hawkins (both Scarlets), J Adams (Cardiff), S Costelow (Scarlets), T Williams (Gloucester); R Carre (Saracens), D Lake (Ospreys, capt), T Francis (Provence), D Jenkins (Exeter), B Carter (Dragons), T Plumtree (Scarlets), A Mann (Cardiff), A Wainwright (Dragons).Replacements: R Elias (Scarlets), N Smith (Leicester), A Griffin (Bath), F Thomas (Gloucester), J Botham (Cardiff), K Hardy (Ospreys), J Evans, B Murray (Scarlets).Scotland: B Kinghorn (Toulouse), K Steyn (Glasgow), H Jones (Glasgow), S Tuipulotu (Glasgow), D van der Merwe (Edinburgh), F Russell (Bath), B White (Toulon); N McBeth (Glasgow), D Cherry (Vannes), Z Fagerson (Glasgow), M Williamson (Glasgow), S Cummings (Glasgow), G Brown (Glasgow), R Darge (Glasgow), M Fagerson (Glasgow).Replacements: G Turner (Harlequins), P Schoeman (Edinburgh), E Millar Mills (Northampton), G Gilchrist (Edinburgh), J Bayliss (Bath), G Horne (Glasgow), T Jordan (Bristol), D Graham (Edinburgh).There are two changes in the pack with Ben Carter preferred to Adam Beard in the second row and Taine Plumtree filling the blindside flanker spot.
Aaron Wainwright moves back to No 8, where he lined up for the opening defeat by England, and Olly Cracknell drops out.Freddie Thomas, James Botham and Blair Murray are named on the bench for the first time in this Six Nations campaign.Tandy said: “We feel this is the best team to take on Scotland and with a six-day turnaround you want some freshness as well going into the game.It’s our third game of the championship.We want to build on our performance.
We want to see more consistent moments and back-to-back moments, which we feel if we get we’ll be closer to getting the outcome we want from games.”Wales, who have lost 23 out of their last 25 Tests, have not won a Six Nations home game since beating Scotland in February 2022.Scotland arrive in Cardiff buoyed by the Calcutta Cup victory that saw them bounce from their opening championship defeat by Italy.
Death tax? Property tax? Four ideas that could offset inheritance inequality in Australia
The $5.4tn intergenerational wealth transfer predicted to occur within the next two decades is a major challenge for Australian governments. Economists have warned it could entrench and exacerbate inequality, and make the economy less productive. So what can be done about it?“In the end, that comes down to tax,” says the former deputy reserve bank governor Guy Debelle. “Taxation is how you redistribute
The disturbing rise of Clavicular: how a looksmaxxer turned his ‘horror story’ into fame
His gonzo argot of ‘mogging’ and ‘jestermaxxing’ masks a malign chauvinist philosophy, and his audience keeps growingHow’s your “jestermaxxing” game? Have you been “brutally frame-mogged” lately? If you’ve been finding this kind of online discourse even more impenetrable than usual, a 20-year-old content creator calling himself Clavicular is probably to blame.Born Braden Peters, Clavicular is a manosphere-adjacent influencer who has recently broken containment for a string of high-profile controversies, including livestreaming himself apparently running over a pedestrian with his Tesla Cybertruck and being filmed chanting the lyrics to Kanye West’s Heil Hitler in a nightclub with the self-styled “misogynist influencer” Andrew Tate and the white nationalist commentator Nick Fuentes.Before taking up with what some feel are among the worst men alive, Clavicular was known only as a “looksmaxxer”, a young man intent on optimising his physical attractiveness by frequently extreme measures (such as steroids, surgery and, er, taking a hammer to his jaw).Yet Clavicular’s gonzo live streams and absurd lingo have seen him escape his subcultural silo, landing him a modelling gig at New York fashion week and a profile in the New York Times.So where has he come from? And what does his rise mean for humanity?Peters came to prominence last year on the streaming platform Kick (like Twitch, but more laissez-faire with content moderation), where he now has nearly 180,000 followers
Ministers may slow youth minimum wage rise amid UK unemployment fears
Ministers are considering a slower rise in the minimum wage for younger workers, amid fears over rising youth unemployment.Labour had promised in its manifesto to equalise national minimum wage rates by the time of the next election, saying it was unfair younger workers were paid less. Government sources said equalisation remained the aim but the rise could come more slowly.At the current rates, those between 18 and 20 are paid a minimum of £10 an hour, rising to £12.21 an hour for those over 21
Brazilian butt lifts should be banned in UK amid ‘wild west’ industry, MPs say
Brazilian butt lifts should be banned in the UK, MPs have said, as a report found a lack of regulation had led to a “wild west” of cosmetic procedures being carried out in garden sheds, hotel rooms and public toilets.The women and equalities committee (WEC) said high risk procedures such as non-surgical buttock augmentation should be outlawed immediately, and a licensing system for lower risk treatments was urgently needed. People with no training can carry out potentially harmful procedures, putting the public at risk, the group of MPs added.A nine-month inquiry by the committee also found ministers were not moving quickly enough to tackle the risks posed to Britons and recommended they “accelerate regulatory action”. The lack of timely action was “fostering complacency in self-regulation” within the industry, they cautioned
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