Six Nations: Rory Lamont set for lengthy absence after leg-break surgery

SCOTLAND coach Andy Robinson will be glad of a week’s break before the final two games in the RBS Six Nations Championship after his medical team reported another heavy toll in casualties.

The Scottish side fronted up to a physical French team at Murrayfield on Sunday and for long spells looked like they might strike a first tournament win of the year, only for France to come back and hold on in the final stages for a 23-17 win. The result was dispiriting enough for Robinson and his management team still seeking a first win in 2012, but he will now be forced to alter his team selection again for the trip to Ireland in 11 days’ time, having lost a ninth player from his squad to injury.

Robinson has only twice been able, or willing, to name the same starting XV for back-to-back games in his 27 Test matches in charge of Scotland, and the last occasion was at the end of his first Six Nations Championship in 2010.

Rory Lamont is the only player definitely ruled out of Scotland’s last two matches, Italy the final game the week after the Dublin match, with confirmation that he underwent an operation to stabilise a fractured fibula. Lamont suffered the injury when he landed awkwardly from contesting a kick-off after just 30 minutes of Sunday’s match. He joins Kelly Brown, Moray Low, Fraser McKenzie, Alasdair Dickinson, Alasdair Strokosch, Ruaridh Jackson, Max Evans and Joe Ansbro from the initial Six Nations squad injured before or during the championship.

It is wretched luck for the 29-year-old and the latest Murrayfield disaster to befall the Glasgow winger/full-back. The younger of the Lamont brothers was stretchered from the pitch in 2008 when Iain Balshaw’s knee smashed his cheekbone in the Calcutta Cup match, at a time when he was in the sights of British and Irish Lions head coach Ian McGeechan, and more recently, in only his third appearance for Glasgow after returning this season, he collided with Edinburgh flanker Ross Rennie and was stretchered from the field with concussion.

Add in a bad head knock playing for Scotland against Italy in St Etienne in the 2007 World Cup and the serious ankle ligament damage sustained contesting a high ball with Shane Williams in Scotland’s stunning last-gasp defeat in Cardiff in 2010 and it is a wonder Lamont retains his enthusiasm for the game.

In the rest of yesterday’s medical report, Scotland doctor James Robson reported that Lamont’s older brother Sean suffered an abrasion to his right eye; centre Graeme Morrison is having a knee injury assessed; stand-off Greig Laidlaw is being treated for concussion and so faces a week of tests; his half-back partner Mike Blair, Richie Gray and John Barclay have ‘dead legs’; and Jim Hamilton suffered leg bruising.

On top of that, six other players from Sunday’s 22 are receiving treatment from the Scotland medical team for lesser injuries, which further underlined the physicality and intensity of the clash with France. Robinson will try to resume training tomorrow with the players he has from Edinburgh and Glasgow who are fit, while those playing in England return to their clubs.

Glasgow coach Sean Lineen is confident that Lamont would recover from this latest setback as enthusiastic as ever to play for club and country. He said: “I am devastated for Rory at the moment because he is such a good lad and it is horrendous luck.

“But we will do everything we can to support him and get him back mentally and physically strong, and I know with his attitude that he will be back and pushing for Glasgow and Scotland as soon as he can. He will be a big loss to the team because he is a proven performer at Test level and has the versatility to cover full-back and wing, and was a good, experienced player to be alongside Stuart Hogg.

“But, there was so much that was good about Scotland’s performance on Sunday that we have to look forward – a full house at Murrayfield for a French game for the first time in 17 years, a great game of rugby and good tries.”

On the difficulties facing Robinson as he battles to uncover a win, Lineen added: “The harshest critic of Andy is Andy himself, but he has total belief in the squad and I know the players, and the pro club coaches, all have total belief in him and what he is doing. You look at where we are, the resources we have, how we’re playing, with great work ethic and real ambition, and I know the results will come.

“Unfortunately, every coach has injuries to deal with and we don’t have the resources of other nations, so it hits us harder. Professional rugby in Scotland is tough and we have to fight above our weight all the time. But there is an exciting element in the national squad now and we have to stick with them.”

Robinson has learned much about Scottish rugby in his four years north of the Border, and the phrase ‘it never rains but it pours’ may now be working its way into his psyche.