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Forget the criticism of a never-ending season, Scotland’s tour of tier-two nations is admirable

The unusual four-week tour has improved Scotland’s depth and has commendably taken Test matches to countries who need the exposure

Almost a month on from a number of Gallagher Premiership clubs clocking in to start their pre-season campaigns, Scotland’s long tour of North and South America has come to an end. Even for rugby’s unique calendar, that is unusual.
While England, Ireland and Wales headed to the familiar destinations of New Zealand, South Africa and Australia, it’s been a significantly different summer for Scotland, a four-match tour which began in Ottawa against Canada and came to an end last Saturday in Montevideo taking on Uruguay. In between they faced the United States in Washington D.C. and Chile in Santiago.
Scotland won all four Tests, naturally, but the results always felt secondary to the bigger picture.
Inevitably there has been criticism around Scotland’s schedule. “What a waste of time, money and aviation fuel” read one headline, deriding the trip and questioning how Scotland could actually benefit from such a long time away from home. 
If Glasgow and Edinburgh get off to slow starts in the United Rugby Championship when it returns on September 20, following the late return to action of their players, then there may be further criticism.
But any grumbling overlooks all the admirable qualities about this Scotland tour; the time together as a group, the essence of why touring in rugby is such a great concept. A four-week summer tour stands out because they have become so rare in the professional era.
Key players were rested in Finn Russell, Ben White, Ali Price, Blair Kinghorn, Darcy Graham, Richie Gray, Zander Fagerson, Jack Dempsey, Hamish Watson, Grant Gilchrist and Sam Skinner. 
Scotland also selected 11 uncapped players who all made their debuts — Nathan McBeth, Patrick Harrison, Robbie Smith, Will Hurd, Max Williamson, Ewan Johnson, Gregor Brown, Gus Warr, Arron Reed, Ross McCann and Matt Currie — and called up a further three as development players for the final two weeks to take part in training — Fin Richardson, Rob Carmichael and Ben Afshar. 
There have been 50th caps for Jamie Ritchie and Huw Jones, with Duhan van der Merwe also breaking Stuart Hogg’s try-scoring record by moving to 28.
Warr and Reed from Sale were among the new caps who were also eligible for England, but the most intriguing fresh face was 6ft 8in Ewan Johnson — born in England to a Welsh mother and Scottish father, before moving to France at the age of four and now playing for Oyonnax.
A source inside the Scotland camp explained why the extended tour had been so beneficial. Five weeks of training time as a group was described as invaluable, particularly for the newer faces learning from senior players including Rory Darge and Sione Tuipulotu, with the training time alone against veterans of that quality almost as important as the matches themselves.
A tour designed to improve Scotland’s depth has done just that but also, as the source noted, allowed Scotland to see how those players handle different scenarios building up to Test matches far away from home. Plus the benefits of new challenges; travel, weather, new environments.
Scotland have taken Test matches against top opposition to countries who need that repeated exposure to improve, facing Chile and Uruguay in those countries for the first time, which is far more than England have done in recent memory. 
Next year’s Test against the United States will be their first game in North America since 2001. The last time they went to Fiji? 1991. The first summer in a Rugby World Cup cycle is the perfect time to go on a tour like this and full credit to Scotland for doing just that.
“Everyone has a responsibility to grow our sport,” the source added. Quite. Scotland’s decision to do something different should be commended.

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