LUKE Crosbie had promised to lead by example after being named captain of Scotland A, and he did exactly that on Saturday night, taking the game to Chile from the first moments of his team’s 45-5 victory in Santiago. The Edinburgh flanker laid on an early try for George Horne, was always probing for soft spots around the breakdown, and also played his part in a sustained defensive effort in the second half as Chile fought hard to get points on the board.
It remains to be seen if Crosbie has done enough to force his way into contention for a place in the team for Saturday’s first Test against Argentina, and with the likes of Hamish Watson in the way that could be a big ask. But he could hardly have done more, even if he was disinclined afterwards to sing his own praises.
“The most important thing to me is my team-mates,” he insisted. “They’re the ones who do all the hard work on the training field and they’re the ones you’re in the fight with when you go to dark places on the field. So if I can gain the respect of my team-mates that’s a real honour for me.”
Crosbie agreed with head coach Gregor Townsend that, while the team’s energy levels slipped a bit in the second half, the need to practise defending was no bad thing. “It’s credit to Chile for putting us under pressure for the full 80 minutes,” he added. “Chile are a really physical outfit and brought their energy, so everything we got we had to work really hard for.
“There’s stuff that we can definitely work on in the later weeks of the tour. It’s good for us to see the positive and also work on areas of growth as well.”
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