Fergus Burke has been a joy to work with since he joined the Scotland squad, according to Gregor Townsend, who believes the fly-half is ready to make his international bow against Fiji on Saturday.
Burke featured from the bench in the non-cap win over the Maori All Blacks last weekend and will now win his first cap after being handed the number 10 jersey for the Suva showdown.
Asked about the qualities of the Saracens fly-half, who was born in New Zealand but qualifies for Scotland through his Edinburgh-born grandfather, Townsend said there was lots to like.
The Scotland head coach added: “I think the most important element is how physical he's been, both with carrying the ball, but in particular his defence. He's been excellent this year for Saracens, and he's shown that on tour.
“We're going to need our backs to defend really well on Saturday. His game management, his game understanding, is up there with the best 10s.
“He knows why you would play a certain shape, why you might play a certain tactic against a different opposition, and he's got the technical skills to execute that.
"He's been a joy to work with right throughout the Six Nations, when he didn't get an opportunity, to now, on tour, having played at the weekend, and then now getting a chance for his first start.”
Townsend also explained why he has made 14 changes from the win over the Maori All Blacks. Marshall Sykes is the only player who started in Whangarei to retain his place in the starting line-up in Fiji.
“We'd planned to mix up the first two games, which is an element of risk, in that two different teams, you don't get the continuity between games.
“But what I believe works well for us, and has worked in the past, is you get that cohesion with that team.
“This team that is going out against Fiji, having trained together now for the last two or three weeks - they've trained against the team that played against the Maori.
“We're very pleased with the performance of the group against the Maori. And if it had been a different scenario, then maybe we would have changed the selection, because players really played well in that game, but we stuck with these two teams.
“And what we'll have is a fresh team too. Not many of them played against the Maori, and they've been raring to go.”
Scotland are back in Fiji for the first time since defeat on Townsend’s first tour in charge back in 2017.
Several players took ill before that match eight years ago, and Townsend revealed they have taken extra precautions to ensure they do not endure a repeat this time.
Asked about the learnings from that came that can be taken into Saturday’s match, he said: “We didn't win the physical battle, and that was really disappointing. We'd had a great win the week before in Sydney and it would have been a brilliant way to end the tour, but we just didn't front up physically.
“It's rare to see that in a Scotland team. Every now and again if you have that performance you know that can never happen again. That was the biggest learning.
“There were other learnings off the field. We did have some players going down ill the day of the game, and we’ve taken a lot of precautions this week to make sure that what we're eating and drinking is as safe as possible and what we're used to so we'll be in great physical condition when we go into the game.
“But the most important thing is matching the physicality. Not allowing the Fijians to build confidence and get the crowd into the game, which they did that day.”
