Ruthless Robinson warns pair time is running out

ANDY Robinson has taken a more ruthless line with his players than in his pronouncements to the media, it seems, after he revealed yesterday that he had given two of his British and Irish Lions, Chris Cusiter and Euan Murray, a deadline of this week to prove their fitness for the Rugby World Cup.

Both players have struggled with injury throughout the summer, Cusiter having picked up a calf injury in his first week back in training with Glasgow and Murray failing to recover sufficiently from a long-term Achilles injury to take any real part in summer training.

Team medics have had to balance giving them as long as possible to regain fitness so that the affected areas can withstand everything coming their way in a World Cup, but also allow the players to try to maintain some measure of overall fitness and sharpness.

Robinson had indicated ahead of the Ireland warm-up match that, while he wanted everyone bound for New Zealand to have played some part in the warm-up games, he would consider taking Cusiter and Murray if he was sure they would be fit once in the Southern Hemisphere.

But, speaking with the benefit of knowing both would now be fit enough for some game-time on Saturday, he made it clear that he would not.

“They weren’t fit for the first game,” he explained, “and I made it that, for them to be involved in the 30, they had to be involved this weekend.

“If they weren’t involved this weekend I wouldn’t have taken them to New Zealand, so it was one of those stipulations in terms of training – they had to get themselves ready to play this weekend.

“I said that [that I might take them without involvement in warm-ups] to you [media]. I said that I could do that, but I would rather they played and the information I gave them was that I wanted them to play for that to happen.”

On why neither will start against Italy, he replied that, although fit they still were not at the top of the pecking order, Mike Blair having shaken off an ankle injury and returned to full training earlier than Cusiter and Moray Low having earned his chance to follow Geoff Cross’ Man of the Match display against the Irish and push his claim for the starting No 3 jersey.

Robinson said: “Euan is fit to have started [against Italy], and Chris wouldn’t be in the 22 either if he couldn’t have started, but, again, it’s about competition for places and people getting in the starting XV. Moray Low has trained well and Mike Blair has as well.

“Geoff Cross did well last week and Moray did well in Argentina last year, so let’s see the improvements that he’s made in training. He has made some real improvements in training and he’s got to take that into the game now and perform as he did in Argentina last summer.

“Chris hasn’t been involved in the squad for a year and Mike has been. Chris has only just got back into the team stuff in the last couple of weeks whereas Mike has been there for three weeks and training well.

“This is about getting into the starting XV and Mike has been training very well. This is not about getting in the 30, but about who is putting their hand up to start in the Romania and Georgia games.”

If that suggests that all the players involved against the Italians on Saturday are assured of their place in the final 30, then Robinson stated that was not the case. But there is no doubt that the focus is firmly on which blends work well together for the opening two pool games with Romania on 10 September and Georgia on 14 September, and which of his first-choice line-up he can afford to rest from one of them.

Explaining his thinking behind Saturday’s line-up, in which Graeme Morrison is the sole survivor from the XV that faced Ireland but Dougie Hall, Richie Gray, Ross Rennie, Ruaridh Jackson and Nikki Walker may also get a second chance off the bench, Robinson said much of it had been planned before the Ireland game.

The coach insisted that there were no guarantees offered to replacements that they would definitely feature.

“This is a Test match and we’re going out there to win a Test match. I say to the bench every time that they have to be available to come on from the first minute to the very last minute; there’s no ‘you’re going to come after 30’, because the experience I’ve had over the years is that, when you tell people that, it doesn’t happen.

“So there are no guarantees for players. They are on the bench and, when they get their game-time, they come on and deliver.”

In saying that, Robinson does plan to send Jackson on at some stage with the responsibility of goal-kicking, and clearly Cusiter and Murray will need good periods of action to prove their fitness not only to themselves but also to their teammates.

They have carried their injuries through the summer and, while Murray started five Test matches last season, the scrum-half’s last international outing was against Ireland in March, 2010.

So both are more underdone in preparation than they or the coaches would have liked. Time is short, and their predicament calls into question the wisdom of having only two warm-up games.

Robinson is convinced that it remains the best preparation, despite the rest of the home nations and the big three from south of the equator enjoying four or five games’ build-up.

However, their resources are greater and, when one looks at the almost daily drip of injuries knocking players out of the Welsh squad, then the two-game build-up is more understandable. But it does mean none of the 30-man squad are likely to have played two games before facing Romania and Georgia. Morrison will be the closest, depending on Saturday’s game-time, but most will have had 80 minutes or less.

Actions speak louder than words in Test rugby so, while asking for a slick display in many players’ first game of the season is tough, it is important in Saturday’s final EMC World Cup warm-up that rustiness is shed swiftly.