Here's Jonny! Gray is back to his best with Bordeaux after injury nightmare
After 17 consecutive victories, including an immortal Top 14 and Champions Cup double, Blair Kinghorn finally - shock, horror - lost a match with Toulouse at the weekend.
Bordeaux were the team that ended the run. “Despite 64% possession, Stade Toulouse hit a wall,” reported the rugby newspaper, Midi Olympique. They named four players as the “strongest bricks” in that wall. One of them was Jonny Gray.
When you see that Gray is top of the plaquages chart in the Top 14 you don’t need to speak the lingo to know what his ranking relates to. It’s tackles, of course. His bread and butter. He’s made 54 tackles in 255 minutes so far.
Gray’s return from a serious injury that saw him play no competitive rugby from early May 2023 to early September 2024 is an utter triumph. Only he will know how brutal the road to recovery really was - mentally and physically - but he’s not the type to talk about it. He’s a do-er, not a yapper.
Bordeaux have toppled the champions and lead the Top 14 table on points difference. Welcome back, big fella.
Later this month Gregor Townsend will name his squad for the four-Test autumn series. Even though he won’t be eligible for one of the Tests because it’s outside the Test window, Gray is going to win his first cap in 18 months at some point in November.
Which begs the question, who else might be in Townsend’s squad. In a series of columns in the coming weeks we’ll examine the options position-by-position and we’re starting with the engine room.
Townsend has 10 players to think about. Actually, make that seven because Sam Skinner, Glen Young and Leicester’s Cameron Henderson still haven’t been seen this season following injury.
Jonny Gray is in the best form of the lot and his brother, Richie, will be with him, as long as he’s not thinking of doing anything silly like retiring from Test rugby before Townsend’s announcement. He’s 35, but he’s still a hugely valuable player. Scotland need him to go again.
Grant Gilchrist will be another pick, which makes three. The last time Townsend selected a squad for autumn Tests - outside of World Cup year - was 2022 and he went with an overall total of 40 with five locks.
That leaves Scott Cummings, Max Williamson, Alex Craig and Ewan Johnson competing for two slots. Johnson was on the summer tour but he’s started his season with two yellow cards in two starts for Oyonnax in the second division in France.
Johnson is a long-shot. Craig was brilliant for the Scarlets last season but Williamson is hard to overlook. He started both of Glasgow’s opening games in the URC and is getting better and better under Franco Smith’s coaching and with Richie Gray as a mentor.
So, the top five - Gray Jnr, Gray Snr, Cummings, Gilchrist and Williamson. Townsend might see it differently, but there’s a lot of different talents in that crew. Gray’s return will be a sight to warm the heart on those cold but thrilling November days to come.
