Zander Fagerson is in “probably in the shape of his life” and available for Scotland’s Calcutta Cup clash with England in the Guinness Six Nations on Saturday.
The prop is a vital cog for Scotland having started in 17 of the last 18 tests. But he was in doubt after a hamstring injury sustained in a club game at the end of November.
The Dundee-born tight-head hasn’t played since. He was however included in the Six Nations squad named a fortnight ago but still considered touch and go for Twickenham.
But forwards coach John Dalziel has no doubts after a week in Scotland camp at Oriam and a few days at their warm-weather camp in Spain.
‘He was able to do a lot more’
Putting in the work.#AsOne pic.twitter.com/sK9SrzTQex
— Scottish Rugby (@Scotlandteam) January 31, 2023
“He’s probably looking to be in the shape of his life,” said Dalziel. “We were lucky enough that he was able to do a lot more than we had thought he would do last week.
“This is his second week in training. He’s done absolutely everything, not been modified out of anything.
“He’s fit, available and I would suggest pushing for selection this weekend.”
Scotland were greeted with torrential rain and light morning frost when they arrived in their camp on the Costa del Sol. But the benefits are obvious, said Dalziel.
“It thankfully cleared up and it’s been beautiful,” he said. “The players are loving the Vitamin D boost being in the sunshine.
“We have a fantastic facility at Oriam, the indoor pitch is world class. But you want to train on the grass as much as possible, and we can’t guarantee that.
“Here, we’ve had meaningful pitch time and been able to do walkthroughs. In addition, we have much more time together.”
‘There will be a lot of changes’
🇪🇸 The benefits of this week's training base in Spain. #AsOne pic.twitter.com/doO8PTpCHU
— Scottish Rugby (@Scotlandteam) January 30, 2023
England have almost an entirely new coaching team after replacing Eddie Jones with Steve Borthwick. Dalziel admits that there’s a bit of the unknown for this game.
“No doubt there’ll be a lot of changes in philosophies in a few areas,” he said. “We know ourselves in international rugby it is very tough to change everything all at once.
“You get three days on the grass with the guys before you’re preparing for a test match.
“A bit of our preview will be considering the old England under Eddie (Jones), and what that new England might look like as well.
“There will be a lot around the individuals selected. That’ll tell us a lot about how they play and where the threats will come.”
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