Scotland trio's game-time may give us some clues - as do last weekend's European results

On the face of it, the qualifiers for the knock-out stage of the European Champions Cup made it again clear that Irish rugby is in a healthier state than rugby here in Scotland.

Glasgow failed to get through and will now take their place along with Edinburgh in the lower-level Challenge Cup, while all four Irish provinces will be in the Champions one. All the same, first impressions can be misleading. Glasgow failed to qualify when they lost narrowly to La Rochelle. Connacht qualified because their match with Toulouse was called off because of Covid in the French camp and they were consequently awarded a 28-0 win. Connacht have come a long way in the last ten years and are tough opponents for anyone, especially in Galway, but even their greatest admirers wouldn’t give them much of a chance of winning in Toulouse, let alone by that sort of score. Still, good luck to them. Meanwhile Edinburgh, whose results last season meant that they hadn’t qualified for even the early stage of the Champions Cup ran riot against Brive who may, one suspects, on account of their struggle to survive in the Top 14, have been less than whole-heartedly committed to the European competition.

Glasgow, as it happens, play Connacht in the URC league today. Even though Gregor Townsend has released a few players from the Scotland squad (as he has also done for Edinburgh who play the Ospreys in Swansea) Glasgow are somewhat more weakened by international calls than Connacht, especially up front where they are without both Fagerson brothers, Rory Darge and George Turner – that is, half of what has recently been the first-choice pack.

What we should read into these releases as a hint of the Scotland side that will defend the Calcutta Cup next Saturday