Big opportunity for Scots but Robinson faces a mighty task

Published on Friday 20 November 2009 22:53

THERE was a severe look about Andy Robinson on the eve of his first meeting with a rugby superpower as Scotland coach, which may have contrasted with the brighter weather at Murrayfield but definitely pointed to an acute awareness of the heightened intensity that will be unleashed in tonight's Bank of Scotland Corporate Autumn Test match.

Robinson has been a jovial character in recent weeks and it was perhaps a sign of the time he has spent this week analysing the strengths and weaknesses of this burgeoning Australia side, and fully realising the different challenge he has before him with this team to the last one, England, that he steered to victory over the Wallabies, in November, 2005.

The coach shrugged off the late change to his squad, which sees Mike Blair drop out after failing a fitness test on an ankle injury he picked up against Fiji, and Rory Lawson move from captaining the A squad last night to bench duty today.

Asked about the potential of becoming the first Scotland coach to beat Australia in 27 years, he replied: "It's not been done yet so we'll deal with that after the game.

"Whenever you play Australia, their mindset is that they are the most competitive animal that you can meet. They will compete at anything and this is a young team that really is developing well.

"They are unbeaten on this tour, had a good victory against England and put in a good performance against Ireland, and we know how dangerous they are and that we've got to raise how we're going to perform, and raise it for the whole 80 minutes."

Asked to compare Scotland and its limited professional player pool with Australia's existing four-team set-up, he agreed one could draw a parallel between the two nations facing each other this evening, but pointed to the more significant differences, notably that the many youngsters in a country of more than 21 million people grow up learning how to catch, pass, run and kick the ball through the popularity of rugby league, Aussie Rules football, union and soccer, and do so with the sun on their backs for the majority of the time.

This is still a growing Australia side and is not without weakness, but one key area where they have stepped up to the mark in a world context is the scrum, an aspect of union that southern hemisphere sides moved away from in the drive for Super 14 perpetual motion style of rugby. They have moved back and Robinson admitted had done so very well.

"Our scrum is going to be under real pressure," he stated. "We're not scrummaging against Fiji; we're scrummaging against a dominant eight and there is a job to be done there. I've explained to the players that set-piece is going to be a key battle-ground for us, and while their line-out has been under pressure on this tour, it will be against England and Ireland, so we know they'll have been working on getting their systems in place there as well."

Robinson was highly guarded about whether this could be the day that Scotland end a 27-year wait for victory over the Wallabies, and with good reason. His opposite number, Robbie Deans, is a year further down the road of developing a squad than he is. Some new combinations have been forming on this tour, but they are not unfamiliar to each other.

The tourists also experienced a late change to their starting line-up with Digby Ioane, the Queensland centre, ruled out, which meant a return to the team for Ryan Cross.

That shakes up the Queensland threequarter line with Matt Giteau, the stand-off, and full-back Adam Ashley-Cooper the only players not from Brisbane before yesterday, but Cross is Giteau's team-mate at Force, so they know each other well.

Up front, experienced ACT duo Stephen Moore and Ben Alexander link up with Benn Robinson from the Waratahs, and the back row is a blend of Waratahs duo George Smith and Wycliff Palu, and the ferocious being that is Rocky Elsom.

Scotland are still creating key blends, Chris Cusiter and Phil Godman starting only their second game together since spring, 2007, Graeme Morrison and Alex Grove their second ever.

The Scottish front row knows each other well, but tighthead Moray Low is unlikely to have experienced a test like this, and that also applies to the relatively young back row.

These are important factors in working together to secure set-piece ball, to retain possession and track players on runs, the difference between taking an off-load and forcing the ball-carrier into contact, and chasing kicks to seriously pressurise opposition receivers into errors – all of which are destined to be crucial factors in deciding tonight's game.

It illustrates the starkness of the challenge Scotland face in striving to close the gap between the nation ranked ninth in the world and that in third spot.

But where this Scottish side will give themselves a chance is in defence. If Scotland are quick and well-organised, and hit aggressively, get up and hit aggressively again, for the full 80 minutes, they will find they have an almighty opportunity of a first win over Australia in 27 years.

Then it comes down to how much the Scottish attack has developed in recent weeks, across the team. Robinson did not talk about the weather yesterday, ironically, after last week discussing it and the match being played in mainly dry conditions, while today is expected to be horrendously wet.

The obvious benefit to Scotland lies in the disruption wet hands and balls cause to the visitors' slick attacking skills, and the potential for a higher error count to be seized upon, but the rain does not fall on only one team.

Robinson remained poker-faced. He has no illusions as to what awaits. He has been here before. "Australia have got a very settled squad and are a strong team," he acknowledged.

"Defensively this week we have got to show how we defended in the last 20 minutes against Fiji, for 80 minutes, and in attack we've got to ask more questions of how the Australians defend, in different ways, because we were a bit one-dimensional in the way we showed that last week – trying to attack off our forwards – and sustain that level for 80 minutes.

"That's the key part for us – to find the ways to do that (attack] – whether it's through our driving game, mauling, establish the go-forward through that, then that's what we'll use.

"We have to play with quicker ball, and being able to play off first receiver is an important part of how I coach, and we weren't able to really establish that last week – that ability to play more off the front foot."

Leaving no room for ambiguity, Robinson concluded: "This is another unique game; a tough game, and we've got to be at our very best to win."

Bank of Scotland Corporate Autumn Test for the Hopetoun Cup at Murrayfield today, kick-off 5.15pm; Live on BBC 1

SCOTLAND AUSTRALIA

R Lamont (Toulon)A Ashley-Cooper (ACT)

S Lamont (Scarlets)P Hynes (Queensland)

A Grove (Worcester)R Cross (Force)

G Morrison (Glasgow Warriors)Q Cooper (Queensland)

S Danielli (Ulster)D Mitchell (NSW)

P Godman (Edinburgh)M Giteau (ACT)

C Cusiter (Glasgow, capt)W Genia (Queensland)

A Jacobsen (Edinburgh)B Robinson (NSW)

R Ford (Edinburgh)S Moore (ACT)

M Low (Glasgow)B Alexander (ACT)

N Hines (Leinster)J Horwill (Queensland)

A Kellock (Glasgow)M Chisholm (ACT)

A Strokosch (Gloucester)R Elsom (ACT, capt)

J Beattie (Glasgow)W Palu (NSW)

J Barclay (Glasgow)G Smith (NSW)

SUBSTITUTES

D Hall (Glasgow)T Polota-Nau (NSW)

K Traynor (Edinburgh)S Kepu (NSW)

J White (Clermont Auvergne)D Mumm (NSW)

R Vernon (Glasgow)R Brown (Force)

R Lawson (Gloucester)L Burgess (NSW)

C Paterson (Edinburgh)L Turner (NSW)

N De Luca (Edinburgh)J O'Connor (Force)

Referee: Romain Poite (France)