Iain Morrison: Hines means business

Published on Saturday 22 January 2011 10:17

Scottish Rugby press conferences are usually fairly sedate affairs where a handful of written-word journalists lob a few dollies at Andy Robinson on the other side of the net and he usually pats them back without much to do. Last Wednesday was a little different.

Three separate television cameras, the same number of radio mics and at least a dozen scribblers all gathered to record the Scotland coach announcing his 34-man squad. Oh, and that doesn't include the in-house video camera doing an interview for the SRU's own website. Welcome to the start of the Six Nations. In truth it was a lot of palaver about nothing very much since Robinson will axe around ten of those names who will then drop down and help fill the gaps in the Scotland A squad that plays Ireland in Gala on Friday evening.

Quite naturally the three uncapped players grabbed most of the headlines the following day but it seems a little unlikely that any of them will start against France. Rob Harley and Jon Welsh should get a run at Netherdale come Friday, while Jack Cuthbert (and all the other exiles) will be on club duty with Bath because next weekend does not fall within an IRB designated international window.

Robinson didn't go so far as naming his team for France but the national coach likes to play his own version of Cluedo with the attending press and he dropped enough hints for the assembled detectives (Poirot or Clouseau) to construct a convincing case, although there are still several positions where the coach may need to see a little more evidence himself.

His front row picks itself these days but he has a three-into-two problem in the boiler house and Nathan Hines will start because Robinson didn't so much hint it as shout it from the rooftops, so effusive was he in praising the big Aussie.

Hines will start but there is still a question as to where? The coach admitted that he was tempted to play him at blindside flanker, as he did against South Africa, which spells bad news for Kelly Brown but good news for Richie Gray and Al Kellock, both of whom could then be accommodated in the second row.

Robinson was giving nothing away on the captaincy but there remains a lingering suspicion that if Kellock merits a place in the run-on team then he will lead the side after his sterling efforts in South America. If Kellock doesn't make the XV then the team would presumably be skippered by whichever scrum-half is the flavour of the month. The long Glasgow lock has one final chance to stake his claim this afternoon against the Dragons. The decision must be made in the next day or so because both coach and captain are due at the official Six Nations launch in London on Wednesday.

"It's important for us to perform well and to have a pack that can deliver," said Robinson at one point, with no one likely to argue the point. "There are a few concerns around the scrum and part of that is the way that it is refereed. We are up against a very, very good French scrum and we need to handle it and to dominate it and that is an area where we are going to have to work really hard to get control of the ball. Against South Africa we were turned over on our first four scrums so the platform was not good."

It's another clue. In the back row John Barclay will start at flanker and John Beattie, provided he comes through next Friday's A-team test at Netherdale with his shoulder in one piece, looks likely to join him in the third row. Richie Vernon's handling errors were at least partly responsible for those four turnovers against South Africa and Beattie is much the more assured player at the base of the scrum.

The No.6 shirt goes to Hines if Robinson wants to b eef up the pack, or to Kelly Brown if the coach is more concerned about countering the running game of Francois Trinh Duc. Given Scotland's recent history the latter poses a bigger threat but Robinson kept his cards close and his real problems lie elsewhere.

"Our forward pack is pretty settled," the coach said, confirming the obvious, "and the guys are used to working together so that gives us confidence going into the games. The pack can get a foothold in the game for us through the set piece so we'll have ball we'll be able to attack off."

In other words the pack will win enough possession, even in Paris, and even against a French eight that are still hurting from humiliation by Australia, but the real question is whether the Scottish backs can do anything constructive with it?

The scoring statistics have become something of an albatross around Gregor Townsend's neck - three tries from the backline in 13 Tests does not make for good reading - but the attack coach can only work with the players he has and surely there are simply too few instinctive, natural, heads-up, ball-playing backs in Scotland?

"I spoken to Gregor about this and he's obviously a little bit concerned about it and it's something we're going to look at," was Robinson's response. "Max Evans is playing really well and that is exciting for us. It's just (about) getting the combinations right for what we want."

Those combinations in the back three should see Hugo Southwell in the 15 shirt, so leaving Nikki Walker, Sean Lamont, Rory Lamont and Simon Danielli to scrap over the two remaining wing places, although two may turn out to be just one. Nick De Luca is favourite to fill Graeme Morrison's spot but Max Evans could start at 13 or 14 because Robinson insisted the little centre was equally adept in either position. The coach insisted he would adopt a horses-for-courses attitude. Sticking Evans on the wing would at least offer Joe Ansbro another gallop at outside centre. Scotland needs to find a threat from something other than Dan Parks' right boot and any team pairing Evans and Ansbro at least has some wheels out wide.

Neither man is huge but the pair of them will sleep easy in the knowledge that whoever else lines up for France in the outside channels, it won't be Mathieu Bastereaud. For reasons only he knows, French coach Mark Lievremont has excluded the 18-stone centre, who scored a brace of tries at Murrayfield last season, from his squad altogether - to sighs of relief all round from the Scottish camp.

That is one head-scratching mystery that will likely remain unsolved.