Scotland eye Argentina tour as springboard to 2011 World Cup

AS THE Scotland camp awaits news on whether captain Chris Cusiter will make tomorrow's tour departure to Argentina, this week has provided a clear picture of the scale of the challenge Andy Robinson and his coaching team face in the lead-up to the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

It is hard to tell when the World Cup build-up begins because the seriousness of an autumn Test series against the southern hemisphere's leading lights and the RBS Six Nations Championship that follows ensures that thoughts of New Zealand next year remain in the background.

But there is no doubt the two-Test tour of Argentina, at the same time as the 'A' squad face Argentina's second string, Georgia and Namibia in the IRB Nations Cup, involving many players likely to meet Scotland at next year's World Cup, will provide the material that begins to harden coaches' thoughts.

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Japan have provided the players with a needed wake-up call, which is perhaps just what Robinson planned by taking on the fixture. The Scotland squad began this week by reflecting on the wonder of a final Six Nations win against Ireland, in Dublin, a first over there in 12 years. The positives from that result were then bolstered by the recognition that the team was only well beaten once, by France, and even that game was not out of Scotland's reach had they finished off one or two promising opportunities.

The players were warned not to under-estimate the Japanese, however, and Robinson will have made it clear that consistency remains the great elusive goal for this Scottish team, as with its predecessors, and also the one key to successful sides.

Yet the Scottish team as a whole dropped off the performance level set in Dublin. There are mitigating reasons, not least that many of the Scots had not played for four weeks, new combinations were being tried and they were under instruction to play to a limited set of options, but what the match did was underline the value of a pre-tour match to refocus minds.

With no midweek tour matches any more, Scotland will have just over a week of training to prepare for their first Test with Argentina in the traditionally hostile Tucuman arena and then another week before it all concludes with the second Test in Mar Del Plata. Thereafter players depart on holiday before returning for pre-season with their clubs, and Scotland's building plan returns to a form of hibernation until November.

It does highlight the immediacy of Test rugby, and the need for strong international squads. If it is decided Cusiter should give his knee more time to heal, and ensure further damage is not risked against the Pumas, then he is merely the latest front-line internationalist not available for the summer tour.

A clutch of others and uncapped players are also nursing injuries that rule them out of the 'A' squad that heads to Romania. The under-20s, competing in the IRB Junior World Cup, also in Argentina, are the closest to full-strength of the national sides, but it adds up to more than 100 pros either on Scotland duty, or injured, at the end of a long hard season.

So, resources are tight and the prospects of a new ten-year touring schedule which included three-Test tours of New Zealand would have seemed perilous if not foolish. Japan showed us, again, how poor Scotland can be at dealing with lower-ranked nations. The Scots' failure to impose their own structure on the game, the surprise at low tackles and spaces appearing unexpectedly and a sluggishness in exploiting openings all contributed to players becoming isolated and vulnerable to turnovers.

There are lessons to be learned from games against nations such as Japan, notably how to dominate trickier sides and put them away when the chances are there. That is what the summer tours will now be about. The autumn Test schedule will provide two top-ranked opponents and a lesser light, the Six Nations four countries ranked above Scotland and Italy, never an easy touch – the two periods when the international squads are in camp and the real coaching and improvement can be made.

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Robinson was being realistic when he opted for one-Test tours rather than three in the June window, and Tuesday's performance, with all its mitigating factors, perhaps highlights a knowledge of Scotland's current depth of quality. Intriguingly, Japan now view Scotland as an ideal stepping stone to the world's top eight nations.

But the new ten-year plan also puts Scotland outside the top bracket of eight nations taking on full Test series against each other. The question of ambition continues to nag. Ranked ninth in the world with a playing base of 10,000 adult rugby players is surely not where Scotland wants to be in five years' time.

The SRU has appointed Graham Lowe as director of performance rugby with a mandate to improve the number and quality of pro players in Scotland, so the desire is there. But is the ambition? If Scotland do what every supporter hopes and reach the World Cup quarter-finals with wins over England and Argentina, and possibly hop to seventh or eighth in the world, will one-Test tours for the next eight years still be considered the right approach to improvement?

Lowe is aiming to create a network of more and better players for the U20s, A and senior squads, which would increase the pressure for a third pro team. Uncovering the necessary finance to drive it, and leaving the driving to the rugby experts, remains the big challenge facing the Murrayfield hierarchy. It may be as hard a task as that facing Robinson – to take Scotland forward with meagre resources. But it's a thistle that must be grasped.

Failure could mean playing Japan in five years' time with the tables turned – to give Scotland experience of rugby against a nation ranked in the top ten.

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