Ali Price will make his first Scotland start in over a year against Fiji on Saturday, with head coach Gregor Townsend saying he is “in the best form” of the available scrum-half options.
Despite Edinburgh’s poor start to the season, the 31-year-old has been given the nod ahead of Glasgow pair George Horne and Jamie Dobie, who will be among the replacements at Murrayfield
Toulon’s Ben White is not available as the first of four November Tests falls outside the international window.
Capped 66 times, Price was first choice for Scotland until the end of 2022, but made just one appearance as a substitute during this year’s Six Nations.
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“We feel this year Ali’s played really well when Edinburgh have gone well, the last two games in particular,” said Townsend.
“George and Jamie are competing really hard with Ben, who will be available for us next week, so we see the four of them as all having their different attributes.
“We’ve gone for Ali because we believe he’s in the best form right now. He looked really refreshed after having a summer off.
“Ali’s a [British & Irish] Lion, he’s a quality player. George and Jamie are quality players too, so we have really good depth at nine and Ali’s got an opportunity this week.”
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Fit again after a spate of injuries, Edinburgh winger Darcy Graham will make his first appearance since the World Cup in October 2023.
Adam Hastings is given the nod at fly-half, with Tom Jordan in line for a debut from the bench.
The New Zealand-born 25-year-old has recently completed the five-year qualifying period and has enjoyed a strong start to the season at Glasgow Warriors.
“He brings an energy, an aggression to the game that’s going to be slightly different to what you normally see at Test level at 10,” said Townsend of Jordan.
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“He’s really worked hard on his basic skills, his fundamentals of kicking, kick-offs, passing. He’s going to add something to our back line when he comes on.”
Former English Premier League referee Martin Atkinson is to take over as VAR manager at the Scottish FA.
The 53-year-old will take up the post in early December and is replacing Jon Moss, who left after 52 days to become head of referees at Football Australia.
Atkinson was an official in England’s top flight for 20 years and refereed the 2015 Europa League final.
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He will leave his role as select group manager at Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) to begin work alongside SFA head of refereeing Willie Collum.
“I am delighted to appoint someone of Martin’s calibre,” said Collum. “I did not expect to be recruiting for that position again so quickly, but Jon received a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and went with our best wishes.
“I am pleased Martin has agreed to continue the considerable work undertaken to date in optimising our VAR operation and I’m sure our VAR officials and match officials generally will look forward to working with someone of Martin’s experience.”
Tonks, 33, said: “I’ve been hurling in throw-ins since primary school.
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“My headteacher at primary school said to me: ‘You never threw that in,’ because he had his back to me and assumed I’d kicked it.
“So I asked him if he wanted me to do it again and he couldn’t believe the distance.
“I’ve had a lot of joy with it since and get called the Rory Delap of the National League but I wouldn’t mind his wages from a few years ago! I’ve never actually measured how far I can throw the ball, I just launch it as far as I can.
“The lads sometimes ask me to take something off it and keep it between the goalposts, because I can deliver it well beyond the back post if I want.
“I can see it in the faces of opposing defenders and goalies — they absolutely hate it.”
Teams are obviously now planning for Tonks’ arrival and Huddersfield will no doubt be well aware of it on the artifical surface at The Lamb.
I broke FA Cup record against Man Utd in final.. 20 years later I’m playing for non-league side in qualifying round
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Tonks’ long throws have become the stuff of legendCredit: YOUTUBE / Vanarama National League
And since a 7-0 defeat at Barnet in August, the National League North champions have shown they have what it takes to compete at a higher level.
Tonks added: “When we played Barnet, we got a bit of a turning over.
“But they are full-time and spent a day of analysis on us.
“Their players were actually told NOT to give away any throw-ins in their half. Fair play to them I don’t think I took one in the 90 minutes!”
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While Jurgen Klopp famously employed a throw-in coach at Liverpool, Tonks has never been taught how to perfect his technique.
He said: “It’s just natural to me. I just do the same weights as the other lads.
“I’m not chucking medicine balls around the gym or anything like that.
“I’d probably get banned for putting the ball through the wall if I did!
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JACK OF ALL TRADES
“It’s more to do with timing. Someone asked me the other day how many assists I’ve had but I’ve never kept count.”
As one of the few part-time teams in the National League, 5am gym sessions before work are not uncommon for Tonks and his team-mates.
But, as well as the throws, Tonks is more than useful with his feet.
A David Beckham-esque goal from the halfway line he scored for Stourbridge against Peterborough Sports in the FA Cup went viral.
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He revealed: “That got a million views in a week and my phone didn’t stop ringing for two weeks.
“You can hear team-mate Luke Benbow’s mum screaming on the audio. That’s a funny listen on Youtube, well worth 20 seconds of anyone’s time!”
Tonks also scored a screamer for Tamworth earlier this season to seal a stoppage-time win at Braintree.
He charged into a tackle on the right touchline and, when his opponent pulled out of the challenge, Tonks sent the ball sailing over the goalie’s head from 40 yards and found the top corner.
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Hopefully big Dave is looking down and I can get another goal for him on Friday night
Tom Tonks
Tonks added: “My phone blew up after that as well!
“I had a tweet from some Italian sports news station and someone in Kuwait too. Mad.
“I’ve watched it a few times since and I’m still asking myself how it actually went in!
“It was also special because it was my first goal after my grandad passed away.
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“He used to love coming to watch me. He’s been to so many cold parks in step six of non-league and used to be instantly noticeable in his white vest!
“Hopefully big Dave is looking down and I can get another goal for him on Friday night.”
Tonks is a Wolves fan and has a score to settle with Huddersfield.
He went to a Premier League game at Molineux when Town’s Aaron Mooy put two free-kicks past Rui Patricio in 2018.
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Part-time Tonks, who also sells sandwiches and sausage rolls from a food truck, added: “I’ll never forget that so I owe them one.
“It’s going to be very tough but we’ve had some good results at home and fancy ourselves against anyone at The Lamb.”
With England’s Test tour of Pakistan only finishing on Saturday, it meant a number of key players were not considered for this Caribbean tour, comprising three ODIs and five T20s.
Harry Brook, Brydon Carse and Gus Atkinson are among the players skipping this series before the pre-Christmas Test tour of New Zealand.
Meanwhile regular captain Jos Buttler was forced to miss out with a calf injury, while veterans such as Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes and Mark Wood have not featured since last autumn’s World Cup.
It meant England fielded an inexperienced line-up in Antigua, including four debutants in Turner, Cox, and all-rounders Dan Mousley and Jamie Overton.
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Indeed spinner Adil Rashid outnumbered the caps of the rest of the line-up put together, with 140 to 127.
Furthermore, some of England’s debutants lacked experience of 50-over cricket, with Cox and Mousley playing their first List A games in 20 months and three years respectively.
It has arguably left them unprepared for the challenges of the longer white-ball format, with former England captain Sir Alastair Cook noting on TNT Sports “there’s no experience of working out different situations, for when you’re thrown into international cricket under increased scrutiny”.
Even those with greater experience, such as the 30-year-old Overton, looked rusty, as the Surrey player was dismissed lbw for a first-ball duck by Motie.
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With so many absentees and numerous debutants jammed between Test tours, the series has the air of an afterthought.
But this is the ninth of only 14 ODIs scheduled between the World Cup and February’s Champions Trophy – England must emerge from the series with valuable experience or they could face another embarrassing international tournament exit.
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GALOP DE CHASSE (3.00 Wetherby, nap)
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Trainer Venetia Williams had her best season for a decade last term, sending out a decent tally of 60 winners from her stables in Herefordshire. And this eight-year-old was one of them, as he came back from a break to score nicely at Newbury in November. The form of that race was franked by the second winning since and he looked set for a good season. So it was a shame we didn’t see him again as a niggle kept him off the track. That layoff isn’t a worry as Charlie Deutsch’s mount is best when fresh and has two wins and a second for Williams first time out. This in-between 2m3f trip doesn’t suit all horses but it’s ideal for this consistent type who goes in any ground but has shown his best in decent conditions.
BRIDGET MARY (3.45 Uttoxeter, nb)
Took a big step forward when winning on chase debut at Stratford 25 days ago.She made a couple of errors as you might expect but the engine kept running and it was a comfortable success in the end. There’s more to come for Rebecca Curtis with a 4lb rise on the lenient side.
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ON THE RIVER (4.02 Newmarket, treble)
He has come into his own on the Autumn ground with wins at York and Haydock over shorter trips. He wasn’t stopping in the Merseyside mud last time and this extra quarter-mile holds no fears. Richard Kingscote is an eyecatching booking by trainer Harriet Bethell.
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CHARLOTTE’S WEB (2.30 Newcastle, Lucky 15)
Can weave her way to another victory after a solid success at Wolverhampton latest. It’s still early days for the Crisfords’ filly who can improve for this step up in trip.
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The Dodgers’ 8-7 victory over the Yankees in Game 5 for their eighth World Series title and second in five years averaged 18.6 million viewers on FOX, FOX Deportes and streaming, according to Nielsen.
That is the most-watched game in the Fall Classic since Game 7 in 2019 when the Washington Nationals’ victory over the Houston Astros averaged 23.22 million.
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The series averaged 15.81 million, its best performance since 2017 when Houston’s victory over the Dodgers in seven games averaged 18.93 million.
Its also quite a turnaround from last year, when the Texas Rangers’ title over the Arizona Diamondbacks in five games averaged a record-low 9.11 million. The Dodgers-Yankees series was a 67% increase over that mark.
Additionally, the complete 2024 MLB Postseason on FOX and FS1 averaged 7,485,000 viewers, up +42% over last year’s average (5,265,000) and FOX Sports’ best Postseason through Game 5 of the World Series since 2017, per FOX Sports PR. There was also a 101% increase in viewership among adults 18-34.
The audience Wednesday peaked at 21.27 million from 11:15-11:30 p.m. EDT.
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Dodgers vs. Yankees: MINI-MOVIE of 2024 World Series | MLB on FOX 🎥
The game had a 21.1 rating and 55 share in Los Angeles and 14.8 rating and 39 share in New York.
The rating is the percentage of television households tuned in. The share refers to a percentage of the audience viewing it at the time.
The former Exeter scrum-half has been University of Exeter and England U20s on top of his role as a backs and attack coach at Sandy Park.
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He is also part of the England ‘A’ coaching setup.
This season Exeter have conceded the fourth-most points in the Premiership after six matches, at an average of 29 per game.
They were the first side to lose to Newcastle in 15 months when they were beaten at Kingston Park earlier this month, while at times Harlequins cut through Exeter’s defence seemingly at will in their bonus-point win at Sandy Park on Saturday.
“I would like to thank Omar for his hard work in helping us develop a new and transitional young group of players into a competitive Premiership squad,” director of rugby Rob Baxter said.
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“However, I felt we needed to head in a new direction defensively and after some conversations between Omar and I, we agreed now was the right time for a change.”
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