Scots will take heart from Dubai display ahead of South Africa test

The new format for the draw, introduced this season, is based on the immediate past tournament results and meant that the make-up of the pools was not known until the final of the Emirates Airline Dubai Sevens had been played.

France are the top seeds in the group, having been the surprise finalists on Saturday, but ultimately runners-up to Dubai Cup winners England.

New Zealand, who had a disastrous Dubai Sevens by their own high standards after losing to South Africa in the pool games, then England in the cup quarter-final and Australia in the plate semi-final, are the second seeds.

Scotland, however, should have gained confidence from their win in the bowl competition after beating USA 26-0 in the final, but more so from their overall level of performance throughout the two days of competition in Dubai – in no small way due to the decision to contract a group of specialist sevens players this season.

In all, Scotland have six players on full-time sevens contracts, but while that represents progress it still leaves them trailing behind other countries – and not just the major powers. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the move down the professional track is having a positive effect.

Coach Graham Shiel said: “It’s been an excellent weekend for us, although I think the results perhaps don’t reflect the strides we’ve made.

“And that was without Michael Fedo for the second day. We haven’t made any decision on him yet and will assess his injury over the next day or so.”

Scotland came close to defeating a strong Wales side, and were hugely competitive against Australia on day one. But throughout the tournament two areas of weakness in Scotland’s game were damaging. The first of these is restarts.

Too often the Scots failed to secure the ball either from their own restart or from the opposition’s kick-off, and that must be addressed this week.

“Strangely enough restarts were good last weekend in Australia, but we did not get it right in Dubai,” admitted Shiel.

The other flaw in the Scotland game was possession given away at line-outs on their own throw, costly against both Wales and Australia, begging the question as to why the Scots did not opt for tap penalties to ensure possession.

These negatives, however, were outweighed by the positives, not least Andrew Turnbull reaching his century of tries in international sevens on day one and then going on to score his second hat-trick in two days with a triple against USA.

“I’m really enjoying my sevens this season,” said the Edinburgh and Watsonians flier.

He added: “The difference is that I’m now a full time sevens player which means I can condition myself specifically for sevens rugby”.

Fittingly the final try against USA in Scotland’s Bowl triumph was scored by Colin Gregor who again showed why he is regarded as world class on the sevens stage.

The others to perform well were the Currie flanker , Mark Cairns, who joined the squad only last week and Peter Horne, who showed his ability to break down defences.

As a result of winning the bowl competition Scotland have accumulated 15 points after two rounds of the World Series and sit level with Samoa, the 2009/10 winners in ninth place, encouragingly the Scots best-ever start to the series

Scotland squad: Adam Ashe (Stirling County), Mark Cairns (Currie), Sam Hidalgo-Clyne (Edinburgh), James Eddie (Glasgow Warriors), Michael Fedo (Northumbria University), James Fleming (Glasgow Warriors/Dundee HSFP), Colin Gregor (Glasgow Warriors), Peter Horne (Glasgow Warriors), Kerr Gossman (Glasgow Warriors/Glasgow Hawks), Ross Miller (Glasgow Hawks), Scott Riddell (Stewart’s-Melville FP), Andrew Turnbull (Edinburgh)

Dubai final results: Cup: England 29 France 12; 3/4 play-off: Fiji 26 Argentina 21; Plate: Australia 17 South Africa 14; Bowl: Scotland 26 USA 0; Shield: Samoa 31 Kenya 17

Draw for South Africa Sevens: Pool A: England, Argentina, USA, Samoa; Pool B: France, New Zealand, Scotland, Morocco; Pool C: South Africa, Australia, Canada, Kenya; Pool D: Fiji , Wales, Portugal, Zimbabwe.