“He was in brilliant form for us in the Six Nations. He was in a real strong position to play Test rugby for the Lions, so to have that taken away, we know what happens in a sporting career and a rugby career, that you get injured at the wrong time, but he’ll bounce back, he’ll come back stronger.
“He has with previous injuries and he’s still young, young for a tighthead too, so if it doesn’t happen this time, I’m sure he’ll be an even better place to be a Test Lion in four years’ time.”
Townsend suggested that, while he was pleased with the Scottish representation in the Lions squad, even more Scots could have been involved.
The likes of Darcy Graham, Tom Jordan, Ben White, Jamie Ritchie and Rory Darge were all considered to be in contention and Townsend says those players have responded well to the disappointment of missing out.
With Scotland based in New Zealand and Fiji for their summer tour matches against the Maori All Blacks, Fiji and Samoa, the head coach says they have a great opportunity to keep themselves in the minds of the Lions coaches when injuries inevitably take a further toll on the squad.
“I think the most pleasing aspect of the players is how well they’ve played and how they’ve responded to the news they weren’t going to be in the Lions tour,” Townsend said.
“Darcy scored a hat-trick the week after he wasn’t selected. Rory was man of the match against Stormers, he’s been playing excellently. Jamie’s carried on his really good form, as has Tom Jordan.
“They’re still playing very good rugby, if not even better rugby than they played in the Six Nations, so that’s going to put them in the best position possible if there were changes to that Lions squad, which, if you go on history, it’s going to happen.
“Already we’ve had one change to the tour party, unfortunately for Zander, but there’s likely to be more when you play games and you’ve got the travel throughout Australia, which is tougher to recover from from game to game.”
