Fraser Brown says he welcomes the battle for the Scotland No2 jersey becoming a legitimate three-way contest between himself, Stuart McInally and now George Turner. 

While 31-year-old Brown and 30-year-old McInally have tended to battle it out for the starting hooker slot during the last three and a half years, 28-year-old Turner has spent much of that time breathing down their necks.  

And while the younger man has certainly never let his country down when injuries or rotation for easier games has given him a chance to play – his hat-trick of tries off the bench against Canada in June 2018 was a particular highlight – these have tended to be one-off occasions.  

But that could be about to change with Turner making a try-scoring impact off the bench against Italy two weekends ago, when Brown was injured, and then retaining his place in the match-day squad against France on Sunday, meaning that McInally missed out. 

Turner once again made his presence felt against Les Bleus, despite getting only 12 minutes on the park, particularly when driving their formidable No8 Gregory Alldritt several yards backwards with a memorable, bone-crunching, momentum-shifting tackle.  

“I have been working with George for a number of years now and he’s a brilliant player,” said Brown of his Glasgow Warriors clubmate. “People have probably seen snippets of the quality he’s got during the last few weeks and having that depth in quality is really important to pushing people on.  

“It means you can’t have games where you don’t play near your best if you have that competition behind you, so it encourages you, spurs you on, makes you improve, and makes you evaluate where you are and how to get better.”  

Brown appears to be firmly established as first choice hooker in head coach Gregor Townsend’s mind at the moment, so it will be fascinating to see who out of Turner and McInally gets named on the bench for Scotland’s next match. That will be in two weeks’ time in the Autumn Nations Cup play-offs, because their scheduled final pool match against Fiji next Saturday has been cancelled due to a Covid outbreak in the Pacific Islanders’ camp. 

“Not being able to play next week is hugely disappointing for a number of reasons,” acknowledged Brown. “I’m sure there would have been a few opportunities for guys who maybe haven’t featured up until now, and it would have been another great spectacle because Fiji here is always a great game. 

“But it provides us with a couple of days to rest up – there are a few sore bodies to recover – and it gives us a long lead-up into the finals weekend against either England or Ireland, so that will give us a little bit extra time to review and preview.”