Gregor Townsend excited by Scotland’s summer tour of South Pacific

Gregor Townsend is looking forward to “a unique and special experience” after Scotland finalised plans for their three-match summer tour of the South Pacific.

The tour kicks off in New Zealand with a match against the Maori All Blacks in Whangarei on Saturday, July 5 before Townsend’s side face Fiji and Samoa.

The meeting with Fiji will be on Saturday, July 12 in Suva – Scotland’s first game in Fiji since 2017 – and they will then return to New Zealand to take on Samoa at Eden Park in Auckland on Friday, July 18.

While he is set to be unable to call on a string of key players due to their British and Irish Lions involvement, Scotland head coach Townsend intends to put together as experienced a squad as he can for the tour.

“It’s the first time since 2000 that we’ve been to New Zealand and spending time in a country with such a deep rugby culture is a unique and special experience,” he told Scottish Rugby.

“There are players and coaches within our group who have never been there before and I know they are looking forward to the opportunity as well as the challenges we will face on the tour.

“With the Lions tour happening at the same time, I’m expecting that we will have to call up some players that weren’t involved in the Six Nations. But it will be an experienced group overall that we are planning to take out on tour, as we know these are three very tough games for us.”

Scotland announced in February that they will host USA, New Zealand, Argentina and Tonga in their autumn series.