Johnny Ventisei is captain
The 19-year-old Glasgow Warriors man has big shoes to fill in the shape of back-row Liam McConnell who has led well over the last couple of years, but Johnny Ventisei shows maturity on and off the pitch.
He was involved for Scotland in their World Trophy win last summer and Murray said: “JV provides that continuity from last year, he was involved last year and he'll be our captain this year and I know he will lead the guys well because he is respected within the group.
“And then it's how we use those other guys around that, we have a leadership group and other players that can step up too.”
Reuben Logan is in
The big Northampton Saints man, whose preferred position is No.8, has previously turned out for EnglandU, but he has committed to the Scots for this Six Nations.
His dad Kenny is well known to rugby supporters after earning 70 caps for Scotland while his mum Gabby is a TV presenter.
“He’s been involved in the England set-up, he’s been involved at Northampton Saints and now there’s an opportunity for him to come into our environment,” Murray said of Logan junior.
“We’ve been watching him, he’s been playing with Leicester Lions, the club side there, and we just liked what we saw. We’re bringing him in and we’re going to have a look at him.”
Full cap Freddy Douglas should play some part in proceedings
Freddy Douglas was a standout performer in the number seven jersey for Scotland at this level in 2024 and it led to him earning a first full international cap aged 19 in November versus Portugal.
The Edinburgh Rugby man is currently injured with an ankle injury, but is making good progress.
“He's rehabbing with Edinburgh at the moment and doing well,” Murray explained.
“He’s going to come in and watch some stuff in our camp at the weekend when we get into our Italy preparation from Sunday and, at the moment, we're looking around hopefully getting him into the England game [February 21], that's the one we're targeting.”
Big things expected from Ollie Blyth-Lafferty
Given that he was just 17 this time last year and is a tighthead prop, Ollie Blyth-Lafferty was unable to make his mark on this competition in 2024.
Now 18 and training with Edinburgh Rugby recently, he is expected to make his mark this time around with a lot of people in Scotland exciting about his potential.
“Physically, he is in a great spot as a tighthead prop,” Murray said about his likely first choice number three.
“He's obviously got big parts of his game he needs to keep working on and improving outside it, but he works hard and will keep studying someone like Zander Fagerson and what he does to keep getting better and better.
“Ollie’s got fantastic potential.”
Trying to take momentum from the World Trophy into this event
As mentioned, Scotland won the World Trophy on home soil at Hive Stadium in Edinburgh last summer to return them to the World Championship for this year.
Winning becomes a habit and although the team personnel has changed and Scotland were whitewashed in last year’s Six Nations, they will hope to build on the Trophy form.
Murray stated: “We know that the opponents we are going to face I the next couple of months will be much tougher than the ones we played last summer, but the guys must take some confidence from that and I hope it has given us some momentum as we look to have a better Six Nations”
There is the small matter of a World Championship to prepare for
In a few months’ time Scotland will be back at the top table of age-grade rugby for the first time since 2019.
Given that last year’s winners of that event, England, and the beaten finalists and 2023 winners France are in an ultra-competitive U20 Six Nations along with 2023 finalists Ireland, this is the perfect tournament to have to get the Scots ready.
“We know that every match in this Six Nations is going to test us and help is build towards the summer,” Murray said.
“A lot of the younger and newer members of this squad will find it a big step up physicality and pace-wise, but we are up for the challenge as we kickstart a very busy year.”
