The club season is done. The pro-team season is almost over, unless you happen to be challenging for a playoff place (hint: Edinburgh and Glasgow are not). All eyes turn now to the World Cup, at least in this part of the world.
Mossy returns to the squad for the first time since the Six Nations, and with Hugo Southwell in try scoring form for Stade Francais Chris’ll be looking to reassert his hold on the Scotland 15 shirt ahead of the summer. In-form inside centre James King keeps Nick de Luca on the bench.
Edinburgh (to face Aironi): Jim Thompson, Simon Webster, Ben Cairns, James King, Tim Visser, Greig Laidlaw, Mike Blair, Kyle Traynor, Andrew Kelly (captain), Geoff Cross, Scott MacLeod, Esteban Lozada, Fraser McKenzie, Roddy Grant, David Denton. Replacements: Alun Walker, Lewis Niven, David Young, Steven Turnbull, Stuart McInally, Nick De Luca, Lee Jones, Chris Paterson.
Live TV Coverage: Friday 15th April 1945 BBC Alba
Meanwhile Chris Cusiter is back for Glasgow after almost a year out of action (unless you count twitter and the BBC Pundit’s box).
Team to follow.
Under Andy “Build A Score” Robinson Scotland have improved. Split hairs if you want, but things are certainly looking better than they did only three years ago. Even the most pessimistic of supporters (i.e. any Scotsman) has to admit that.
Pressure, then, is steadily mounting for the 6N and the World Cup this summer.
Is this really the start of the rugby season? We’re a week or two out yet but the uptake of news that one feels obliged to cover seems to be increasing daily. Still, it makes a change from endless football.
Chris Cusiter has all but ruled himself out of at least the first test due to his wobbly knee, in stating he expects not be able to train fully till later in the week. Robbo had earlier said he would need to be training by today to be considered for inclusion. Argentina’s squad contains a number of familiar faces but reassuringly still no Juan Martin Hernandez, who seems to have been in hiding since about 2007.
Argentina squad:
Forwards: Patricio Albacete (Toulouse), Marcos Ayerza (Leicester), Alejandro Campos (Montauban), Manuel Carizza (Biarritz), Agustin Creevy (San Luis), Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe (Toulon), Genaro Fessia (Cordoba Athletic), Juan Figallo (Montpellier), Mariano Galarza (Universitario de La Plata), Mario Ledesma (Clermont), Juan Manuel Leguizamon (Stade Francais), Rodrigo Roncero (Stade Francais), Martin Scelzo (Clermont).
Backs: Horacio Agulla (Brive), Lucas Borges (Albi), Felipe Contepomi (Toulon), Santiago Fernandez (Hindu), Agustin Figuerola (CASI), Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino (Leicester), Alfredo Lalanne (London Irish), Ignacio Mieres (Stade Francais), Martin Rodriguez (Atletico del Rosario), Gonzalo Tiesi (Harlequins).
Full team news later in the week.
Don’t forget it is live on the telly, Saturday 12th June. This should potentially be a great audience pull for the Beeb north of the border given that it lines up against coverage of England vs USA in the round ball game, but sadly more people will probably want to watch ITV1 – and shout at their TVs about how they don’t care about 1966 and stop being so biased whilst drinking Tennents and wearing their ABE shirts etc – than watch BBC2 Scotland (free from jingoistic adverts) and support their countrymen (and Dan Parks) doing something positive.
Trust me, you’ll still get a chance to shout at the TV.
While I was away stuck in the wilderness, it seems quite a lot has happened on the rugby front:
Here are the teams for the Magners League semi-final tonight in Wales, k/o 1905 GMT.
Scotland team to play Italy in the RBS 6 Nations Championship at the Stadio Flaminio, Rome, on Saturday 27 February, kick-off 1.30pm GMT
15 Hugo Southwell (Stade Francais), 14 Simon Danielli (Ulster), 13 Max Evans (Glasgow Warriors), 12 Graeme Morrison (Glasgow Warriors), 11 Sean Lamont (Scarlets), 10 Dan Parks (Glasgow Warriors), 9 Chris Cusiter (Glasgow Warriors) CAPTAIN, 1 Allan Jacobsen (Edinburgh), 2 Ross Ford (Edinburgh), 3 Euan Murray (Northampton Saints), 4 Jim Hamilton (Edinburgh), 5 Alastair Kellock (Glasgow Warriors), 6 Kelly Brown (Glasgow Warriors), 7 John Barclay (Glasgow Warriors), 8 Johnnie Beattie (Glasgow Warriors)
Substitutes:
16 Scott Lawson (Gloucester), 17 Alasdair Dickinson (Gloucester), 18 Nathan Hines (Leinster), 19 Alasdair Strokosch (Gloucester), 20 Mike Blair (Edinburgh), 21 Phil Godman (Edinburgh), 22 Nick De Luca (Edinburgh)
Not considererd through injury: Chris Paterson, Jim Thompson (both Edinburgh), Thom Evans (Glasgow Warriors), Rory Lamont (Toulon) and Moray Low (Glasgow Warriors).
Pretty much what was expected. Still, the bench looks a little flaky based on recent form apart from the Big Stroker who will be looking to make an impact. What about the likes of Cairns or Grove? The first XV looks pretty strong though, and hopefully Danielli will be looking to make up for a few errors he made in the autumn while maintaining his try scoring form. Congrats also to Chris Cusiter and Hugooooooooo who will be earning their 50th caps. Careful with the kicking though boys, leave it to Dan…
Wales 31-24 Scotland
This weekend the game of rugby itself received a transfusion of energy, as finally the Six Nations lived up to its billing and provided rugby fans with sporting drama of the kind not seen since the second Lions Test last year, and before that not seen at test level for some time. The fact that the drama was created with skill in attack rather than restriction in defence was all the more heartening.
It was just unfortunate that new lifeblood was drawn from the twitching corpse of a Scotland back division battered into a wholly unrecognisable shape. Wingers in the centre, centres on the wing, half-backs on the wing, forwards on the wing. Wales’s onslaught in the last ten minutes was as physical and skilful as their approach in the first half had been inept in the face of a near perfect Scotland performance. By the time they finally came at Scotland – sensing as Scotland fans probably could too the inevitability that they would steal this game – they faced a group of players not used to defending a decent and deserved lead, players out of position: players out on their feet.
Comparisons were drawn in a BBC interview with Scotland and Lions Team Doctor James Robson with the body count in the aforementioned 2nd Lions Test and while that game had five serious injuries (and a gouge), it still seems that great sporting drama exacts a high physical toll. Scotland are now faced with the removal of the entire first choice back three, their front line place kicker and their fastest attacking player.
I should imagine the pack remains the same for the next game, having done little wrong. Once again the back row were outstanding, Brown the best I have ever seen him. At 10 Dan Parks will undoubtedly retain his place, and he will deserve it (and anyway Godman may conceivably be banned, no one seems sure if it was a red or yellow he received – more distinctly dodgy TV direction from the BBC Wales OB unit). As we’d all hoped, Dan’s tactical control allowed Scotland to show what they could do playing the game in the right areas. Cusiter too led from just the right side of the law and was outstanding in rallying the troops and defending. I’d still like to see him break more, but unless you are the size of Mike Phillips it seems increasingly hard for a scrum-half to get away from the hangers-on at the breakdown (hangers-on like Scott Lawson, who will wish to forget that particular moment of rashness).
For the next game against Italy, Robinson will have to make changes. I would like to see Grove in, Morrison will have to stay – and he wasn’t too bad anyway. Sean Lamont would move back to the wing (although he should still come inside hunting for work) and probably Max Evans on the other wing. He may look to bring in a specialist winger, but look what Evans can do with 5 minutes on the pitch and the understanding he has with Parks. Southwell is the best candidate to come in at full back and you have a back division still mostly consisting of players from the core of this team.
Because it is this team you want to preserve, this team that is restoring a little hope to Scotland and so nearly much more, and this team that will want to make sure it never happens to them again.
Things left on the “cutting room floor” of this article: showboating wingers, George Clancy, diving full-backs, Jonathan Davies’ standard of “neutral” commentary, paying attention to the clock, continually being shafted by inept Irish referees, playing running rugby with the roof open, Andy Powell and the game of golf, George Clancy. Feel free to gripe in the comments section!
Despite the differences between the two sports similar debates are currently going on amongst fans of Scottish football and rugby.
In football, Kris Boyd had become accustomed to being left out of big games by Rangers and chose to quit international football because he was not satisfied with being always on the bench. This was because he was seen by management as being a one dimensional player. He scored goals but his all round game wasn’t good enough to justify his selection particularly against higher skilled defences. In the end, Boyd altered his game and tried to become a more all round footballer. As a result he has forced his way into being an automatic starter for Rangers and is now being approached to reconsider his position for international selection.
But the debate goes on. Is Kris Boyd now a starter because of a lack of options at his club? Has he really changed his game that much? Does he still take away more from a team than he offers? One thing is sure. If Kris Boyd had Fernando Torres or Wayne Rooney in front of him in the pecking order there would be no debate. But as the players competing with him for selection are Kyle Lafferty and Nacho Novo, there’s hardly an embarrassment of riches available.
The same argument is being played out in Scottish international rugby with Dan Parks. While Dan Parks has always been recognised as a very strong kicker his tackling and delivery leave a lot to be desired. At club level his defensive weakness has led to Bernardo Stortoni alternating in at stand off in defensive situations, a scenario which we may see play out with Chris Paterson in Cardiff on Saturday.
Parks has been out the Scotland team for fourteen months, but he is a different player since the last time he played for Scotland and despite his weaknesses he has one strength over any other stand off available for Scotland in relation to his game management ability. There is no doubting that he has an arrogance and ability to take over the game with his kicking, a virtual guarantee of points scoring and an awareness to play the field position game to his teams strengths.
There seems little doubt from the pattern of recent selections that Robinson and Townsend would prefer their stand off be an all rounder but Parks’ selection for Cardiff on Saturday indicates a recognition by Scotland’s management that the other options available are either unproven or too risky – the product of thinking just too far outside the box. Phil Godman continues not to assert himself as his supporters would wish. Having conclusively lost two head-to-head duels with Parks in the Inter City matches over the Christmas and New Year period his performance against France was mixed at best. Considering Ruaridh Jackson as an option is jumping the gun dramatically. Though his day will come he’s just not ready to play at this level. The other options are Chris Paterson, previously written off by Robinson as a viable option at stand off, or Hugo Southwell, who doesn’t see number 10 as his preferred position although he has played there for Scotland A and is a talented player Scotland probably should utilise somewhere in their team or at least have available on the bench.
The final option is Mike Blair. He’s clearly seen as one of Scotland’s top players and while it’s no doubt tempting to see if both Blair and Cusiter can be accommodated in the starting 15 to date he’s untried in this position.
Scotland need to be more adaptable and urgently start exploring other options. In his article, “The Curious Case of Rory Hutton”, Kevin Ferrie of The Herald writes about the lack of adaptability of Scottish coaching. The fact that Dan Parks is now seen as Scotland’s best option in the playmaker position may be seen as a sad indictment on coaching in this country recognising as it does that no stand off available to us has been developed beyond his level.
At the very least, with the kicking prowess of Parks and Paterson, Scotland should be able to defend in the opposition half and kick the penalties which come their way but they won’t be a true threat at top international level until they have real attacking options. With Scotland being left with no other option but to turn to a player Robinson clearly wanted to discard from the international scene and who wasn’t in either the chosen 44 in August, the A team in Belfast or the 22 chosen against France there could be no better demonstration of our lack of progress as an attacking force at international level.
In the second guessing of the selection that will no doubt continue until Saturday, Scotland’s supporters should avoid being be too harsh on Parks because the simple fact is that now as never before we really need him to be playing at the top of his game. Rumours coming out of the camp suggest that Robinson expected to lose against France but that Wales is a match he believes Scotland can win. Let’s hope that in the critical selection of Dan Parks at stand off he’s got it right.
