Cusiter faces fitness test as Scotland eye clean sweep

Published on Sunday 22 November 2009 23:18

SCOTLAND captain Chris Cusiter is a doubt as the team turns attention to claiming a rare clean sweep of the autumn Test series by beating Argentina this weekend.

Cusiter was forced off after just 20 minutes of the historic 9-8 win over Australia at Murrayfield on Saturday, the scrum-half suffering concussion in a tackle on Adam Ashley-Cooper. Cusiter was reported yesterday to have suffered no ill-effects on Saturday night, but he will be further assessed today.

His rival and co-captain Blair had suffered a head knock against Fiji the previous week, but though he recovered from that an ankle injury forced him out of the squad during last Friday's captain's run.

Rory Lawson was called up from the A squad before it faced Tonga on Friday night, and then filled the breach left by Cusiter in Saturday's Test match, going on to produce a fine performance and remind the coaches that there were three in this scrum-half battle.

Blair remained with the squad over the weekend and could return to training today. If Cusiter is ruled out, coach Andy Robinson has a dilemma over whether he hands his co-captain his first start under him, or rewards Lawson for grasping the opportunity to help defeat Australia.

A number of players were suffering from bruising yesterday, while Simon Danielli and Nathan Hines have 'dead legs', but none were said to yet be giving cause for concern.

Despite winning his first two Test matches in a row, Robinson may make changes to the side for the third and final Bank of Scotland Corporate Autumn Test with Ben Cairns, Nick De Luca and Jason White among those making the case for promotion.