Scotland take aim at history

SCOTLAND’S most experienced player Chris Paterson is aiming to kick his side to glory in front of a capacity 62-000 Eden Park crowd today and silence controversy over the tournament’s match ball.

Paterson will set a new record in Auckland when he overtakes Doddie Weir’s tally of 14 World Cup Tests in the crucial Pool B clash with England. If Scotland lose it is likely to be the Borderer’s last World Cup match, the 33-year-old having become the first Scot to feature in four tournaments.

He was uncharacteristically off-target in the first game in New Zealand as the wind in Invercargill, and a wobbly kicking tee, cost him his first missed kicks since the 2003 World Cup pool stages.

However, unlike others kickers in the tournament, including his rival today Jonny Wilkinson, Paterson has refused to criticise the new Gilbert ball for his inaccuracy. The England kicking coach Dave Alred has paid the price for his attempts to switch match balls and provide Wilkinson with favoured ones during last week’s match against Romania, by being banned by the RFU from attending today’s game, along with fitness coach Paul Stridgeon.

The action ensured that any possible sanction from Rugby World Cup was headed off at the pass, but although England coach Martin Johnson reiterated yesterday how serious he considered the matter – “I don’t suspend guys lightly” – hanging Alred and Stridgeon out to dry with a suspension did not extend to excluding them from England’s captain’s run at Eden Park yesterday, which both attended. The general feeling among kickers appears to be that if the ball is kicked straight it will fly true, but it is very unforgiving if the connection is slightly off. Having won Calcutta Cup matches with his kicking, and put Scotland into the last eight in France four years ago, Paterson knows that Scotland’s bid to qualify for the quarter-finals this weekend could come down to his right boot, and he dismissed suggestions that Wilkinson might struggle without his kicking coach nearby for guidance.

Paterson said: “We’ve trained with the balls since June or July and we get on and train with it. As long as they stay on the tee I’m trying my best, to be honest. Jonny’s kicked for a long time. He’ll understand his own kicking performance better than anyone, so I’m sure he’ll be just fine.

“The kicking coach, along with all coaches, do their work throughout the week. I think there is a noticeable transfer to players taking ownership on matchday.

“Personally, I would just go through my normal routine. I’m quite lucky. I’ve worked with Duncan [Hodge, Scotland kicking coach] and other coaches for a long time and I’d like to think I’ve built up a wee bit of knowledge myself. They’re there as a reference, but it would be for me to go to them, rather the coach to approach you on a match day.”

Scotland coach Andy Robinson named a starting XV showing six changes from the side which lost to the Pumas in Wellington. Captain Alastair Kellock returns in the second row, Euan Murray is back at tighthead prop and Richie Vernon starts at No8, while Mike Blair takes over from Rory Lawson at scrum-half, Sean Lamont shifts to inside centre and Simon Danielli takes his place on the wing, and Joe Ansbro faces up to Manu Tuilagi at outside centre.

This game is an historic first meeting of the two countries in the world’s oldest international fixture on neutral territory and while there is no Calcutta Cup up for grabs the prize of a place in the World Cup last eight will mean more to this group of players. They know they are up against it, now requiring a win by eight points – last achieved in 1986 – or with four tries, which Scotland have only managed once since World War Two, in the 1971 centenary match.

The various permutations for qualification are dizzyingly complicated, with the possibility for Scottish naysayers that the team could win by eight points and still go out if Argentina fail to grab a bonus point in victory over Georgia in the early hours of tomorrow morning (kick-off 0100 BST). Scotland could also progress even if they lose, but keep the defeat to within seven points, if Richie Dixon’s Georgia surprise the Pumas and win.