Cue the Richie/riches puns, people! Here is the Scotland team for this weekend:
Scotland: 15 Hugo Southwell (Stade Francais), 14 Rory Lamont (Toulon), 13 Max Evans (Glasgow Warriors), 12 Graeme Morrison (Glasgow Warriors), 11 Sean Lamont (Scarlets), 10 Dan Parks (Cardiff Blues), 9 Mike Blair (Edinburgh) CAPTAIN
1 Allan Jacobsen (Edinburgh), 2 Ross Ford (Edinburgh), 3 Euan Murray (Northampton Saints), 4 Richie Gray (Glasgow Warriors), 5 Jim Hamilton (Gloucester), 6 Kelly Brown (Saracens), 7 John Barclay (Glasgow Warriors), 8 Richie Vernon (Glasgow Warriors)
Good to see Andy keeping faith with most of his test winning summer team. There is certainly enough oomph in there to match up to the All Blacks physically, but is the pace and mobility quite the same with Hines left on the bench? I do worry a bit what happens when the kiwis come back at them hard on the counter attack. Still, scrum time should be fun…
Replacements:
16 Scott Lawson (Gloucester), 17 Alasdair Dickinson (Gloucester), 18 Nathan Hines (Leinster), 19 Ross Rennie (Edinburgh), 20 Rory Lawson (Gloucester), Greg Laidlaw (Edinburgh), 21 Ruaridh Jackson (Glasgow Warriors), 22 Nikki Walker (Ospreys)
As usual the front of the bench looks a little light on impact – unless you are talking about penalties for the opposition. Hines, Lawson and Rennie all offer something different and it would be good for Jackson to get a run out. With no-sign of the in-form Chris Paterson, it seems that Andy is putting most of his eggs in the basket of a chicken with particularly pointy sideburns…
Referee: Dave Pearson (England). Assistant referees: Wayne Barnes and Robin Goodliffe (both England).
Do I need to say anything? Kick off 5.15pm, Saturday 13th November. Match tickets are still available but not on sale on the day.
UPDATE: Laidlaw in for Lawson, who has failed to recover from a hand injury.
3 responses
would be great to see Jackson get, even just, 5 mins. On the other side of the coin, is Rennie really fit enough to take on NZ?
He has been playing well of late for Edinburgh and is wrapped in far less cotton wool than he was early on in his comeback, I reckon he is at least up to the bench…
Good to see Jackson in there. What happens if Parks comes a cropper in the first 20 could be interesting…