Scotland rugby squad: New look as Robinson aims to build confidence

THE CHALLENGE of rebuilding confidence in the Scotland rugby team will begin in Australia with a distinctly fresh approach from head coach Andy Robinson

He named a tour squad yesterday in which nearly half the players are new to international rugby or only played their first Test this year.

Planning for next month’s three Tests against Australia, Fiji and Samoa, Robinson was left with a rump of the squad he took to the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand last autumn.

Nathan Hines, Chris Paterson and Simon Danielli have retired, Kelly Brown, David Denton and Lee Jones are all ruled out by injury, and Jim Hamilton recently incurred a long suspension.

So there are five uncapped players in the 28-man squad, named yesterday, including Edinburgh wing Tim Visser, who will only qualify for Scotland on residency grounds between the first Test against Australia and second in Fiji.

Robinson had hoped to blood more youngsters but, with a planned midweek match against the New South Wales Waratahs scrapped last week, he has trimmed his squad to 28 and will focus on improving Scotland’s dismal run of Test results.

Glasgow stand-off Ruaridh Jackson, flanker Chris Fusaro and Edinburgh lock Grant Gilchrist are among the highly-rated talents Robinson has left behind. The SRU have also failed in their bid to have London Irish centre Steven Shingler declared Scottish, with the IRB ruling that he is Welsh-qualified.

A quarter of the squad has never started an international and nearly half have either never played international rugby or only begun their first Test match this year, but Robinson is striving to balance the desire to win every Test match with developing fresh talent.

He said: “The importance of winning is the same as it is for any match but this is also about development of players, which is the reason for the selection of players like Tom Brown, Matt Scott and Rob Harley.

“It’s about confidence, improving the ability to go out and win games, to understand how to win games, and generate a squad that totally understands how to perform for Scotland.

“The priority is creating that real team spirit, which touring can do for you, to really lead us on to the autumn and into the Six Nations.”

Scotland squad for summer Tour to Australia, Fiji and Samoa:

Backs - J Ansbro (London Irish), M Blair, T Brown (both Edinburgh), C Cusiter (Glasgow Warriors), N De Luca (Edinburgh), M Evans (Castres), A Grove (Worcester Warriors), S Hogg (Glasgow Warriors), G Laidlaw (Edinburgh), S Lamont (Scarlets), M Scott (Edinburgh), T Visser (Edinburgh) and D Weir (Glasgow Warriors)

Forwards - J Barclay (Glasgow Warriors), G Cross, R Ford CAPTAIN (both Edinburgh), R Grant, R Gray, D Hall, R Harley, A Kellock (all Glasgow Warriors), S Lawson (Gloucester), E Murray (Newcastle Falcons), R Rennie (Edinburgh), T Ryder (Glasgow Warriors), A Strokosch (Gloucester), R Vernon (Sale Sharks) and J Welsh (Glasgow Warriors).