Dan Parks comes in from the cold to face Wales as Phil Godman axed

Published on Tuesday 9 February 2010 22:30

ANDY Robinson's desire to uncover a new attacking game remains on track despite a switch back to Dan Parks at stand-off, according to Scotland's head coach.

• Stand-off Dan Parks will win his first cap for Scotland in around 16 months when he faces Wales on Six Nations duty on Saturday. Picture: SNS

Parks was so far out of Robinson's plans in August that he failed to make his first 44-man training squad, but his improvement this season with Glasgow in tandem with the loss of form experienced by Phil Godman, and a distinct lack of options in the position, has brought the stand-off back into the XV this week for a 48th cap around 16 months after he last started a Test match.

Robinson has made three personnel changes to the side that lost 18-9 to France on Sunday in their opening RBS Six Nations Championship match, recalling Rory Lamont after injury on the left wing, and shifting his brother Sean to outside centre in place of Max Evans. He has also restored Euan Murray at tighthead prop in preference to Moray Low after the experienced prop was unavailable for at the weekend due to his religious beliefs. Chris Paterson retains his full-back berth and will become the first Scot to win 100 caps in Cardiff on Saturday.

The return of Rory Lamont and Murray is no surprise, though Sean Lamont's move to the No 13 jersey, where he has been playing for the Scarlets, is intriguing. But the stand-off shuffle is the most contentious, Robinson having seemingly discarded Parks' kicking-led style in favour of Godman's more running style of game.

Robinson insisted, however, that bringing Parks back – his last Test match was in November, 2008, and last start in Argentina five months earlier – should not equate to a serious shift in style, but improve the Scots' ability to play more rugby in the opponents' half of the field. Indeed, there were whispers that Robinson and his assistant coaches Gregor Townsend and Graham Steadman were considering Parks for this game irrespective of what happened at Murrayfield.

Robinson said: "The decision to bring Dan in was one that we'd been looking at because Dan's been playing consistently well for Glasgow, but it was also down to what we saw at the weekend.

"It will be important for Dan to move the ball and for us to play with the ball in hand. We will not go to Wales and win just by kicking the ball high in the air. They are a good counter-attacking side; they have good length of kicks with their back-field. We've got to understand when to kick and Dan has that (understanding] but we have also got to go at them and take the Welsh on.

"Tactically, last week, I felt it was right to play Phil, in the way we wanted to play the game. When we did have the pressure and opened up the French, we did that through a great line from Phil, and Johnnie Beattie, and a counter-attack set up by Phil with Sean Lamont going through.

"The intent was right, but we weren't ruthless enough to get five or seven points because we didn't hold on to the ball long enough and you can't blame one player for that.

"We have to balance up the way we play. At the weekend we played far too much rugby in our own half and we turned ball over inside our own half, which we can't afford to do against quality opposition. We got away with it against Australia, but we didn't get away with it against France.

"But it's important to say to Phil: 'You did some good things in the game'. Let's not lose that. Phil, on a number of occasions, attacked the line well and counter-attacked well, but on balance we didn't win the territorial battle and for me he's in charge of that and that's why we've made the decision to change the ten."

Robinson confirmed his faith in Godman weighed against a bench call for Ruaridh Jackson, but he also wants the young Glasgow fly-half to get more game-time and experience of the international environment before being thrust into the Test spotlight.

If the stand-off issue has been the most taxing for Scotland coaches, the midfield blend has not been far behind and Robinson explained that the choice of Lamont, Scotland's biggest threat against France, as an outside centre was a purely tactical option to enable Scotland to provide a more potent attacking threat through the middle of the Welsh defence.

Robinson added he could have made more changes in the pack, but was keen for some consistency in selection and, while Murray returns because he is "a world-class prop", Alasdair Dickinson again keeps out Allan Jacobsen apparently because of the balance he provides with scrummaging and ball-playing ability across the field.

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