Stuart Bathgate: Andy Robinson’s starter for ten has no easy answer

THE choice Andy Robinson must make in one position for his team to play Wales may not only shape Scotland’s season. It could also in time define his reign as Scotland coach.

The position in question, of course, is stand-off. The wearer of the No 10 jersey always has a pivotal position on the rugby field, but this time the significance of Robinson’s choice looks likely to extend well beyond Sunday’s game in the Millennium Stadium.

The choice itself should be straightforward. Greig Laidlaw did well enough against England – and Dan Parks did badly enough – to ensure that.

But it is how Laidlaw plays, if selected, that really matters. Will he spark the Scotland attack into life, as he promised to do in the 13-6 defeat by England, or will his inexperience at this level, and in this position, be exposed?

If the former, win or lose at the weekend, Scotland should at least provide some grounds for optimism, and proof that Robinson is making progress. If the latter, a feeling of despondency will grow in Scottish rugby, leaving the incumbent facing a steep uphill battle to convince a sceptical public that he still has enough to offer to merit staying on as national coach.

And then there is the matter of Laidlaw’s deputy. When he finalises the team to play Wales, to be announced tomorrow at Murrayfield, will Robinson be doubly bold and opt for Duncan Weir, or will he hedge his bets and name Parks among the replacements? That choice is not so clear-cut, but could become just as crucial if, with time running out, the match is there to be won and fresh legs are needed at fly-half.

Let’s start with the initial question: who to start with. If Robinson needs to re-examine any evidence before reaching a verdict, he will find it in the DVD of Sunday’s game.

Laidlaw came closer to scoring a try than any other Scot in more than 300 minutes of international action, being denied only by the television match official after appearing to get a hand to the ball from his own chip ahead. He also made the back line sharper and slicker, doing enough in his 23 minutes on the field to answer an apparent doubt about him raised by Robinson last week.

“Greig is a nine adapting to a new position,” the coach said last Wednesday.

“We want to introduce him as a ten at the right time against England.”

The former scrum-half showed he has adapted quite well to that new position, but he undoubtedly benefited from coming off the bench at the same time as his regular club half-back partner Mike Blair. Robinson will need to decide whether a change at No 10 necessitates a change at No 9, or whether Chris Cusiter should again begin at scrum-half. And he will also have to decide whether Laidlaw would have made half as good an impression had he played the whole match against England, rather than being introduced when there was no option but to be adventurous.

What that really means is that Robinson must decide whether, as a coach, he has any option but to be adventurous. He has been accused, at times with some justification, of being too conservative. But he knows that this time the selection of Parks may be the most risky thing he could do.

At the top of his game, in wet weather when kicking from hand can determine the outcome of a match, Parks has been valuable to Scotland. But he has not been at the top of his game recently, and on Saturday the rain cleared not long before kick-off, leaving conditions a little slippery underfoot but still amenable to running rugby.

And Parks’s style is not amenable to running rugby. His movement is too ponderous, his option-taking too predictable.

If rugby had special teams as in American football you could bring him on for punted clearances, an aspect of the game at which – on his day – he has few equals. Or if Scotland had serious hopes of building a big lead over Wales, and thought they might need to kill the game late on with some judicious kicking from hand, Parks might just be worth a place on the bench.

But hopes of even building a slender lead cannot be high right now. Not after Saturday. If Scotland are to win in Cardiff, they will surely have to fight for the result every inch of the way, every minute of the 80.

Which means that, rather than having the option of taking the sting out of the game, Robinson should look for substitutes who can raise the intensity when some of the starting XV are running low on energy. And that should mean a place for Glasgow’s Weir, the man of the match in Scotland A’s stunning 35-0 victory over England Saxons at Netherdale on Friday night.

Weir has no caps: Parks has 67. Invariably, when confidence is low and self-belief has to be restored, you would opt for a more experienced player over an unproven one. But Parks is part of the reason why confidence is low and, at 33, he is not about to reveal a hitherto undiscovered vivacity in his game.

That does not mean that Robinson should discard Parks and order him never to darken Murrayfield’s door again. Thousands of us, in moments of frustration, have decreed that the stand-off should be pensioned off, but there is no point yet in Robinson saying never again. He does not have the resources which would allow him that luxury.

Having said that, the return to fitness of Ruaridh Jackson should soon render Parks’s recall all the less necessary. Jackson is expected to play for Glasgow against the Scarlets on Thursday, and although Sunday’s international will be too soon for him, he will be in the running for the 22 to play France a fortnight later.

With Jackson, Weir and Laidlaw all fit, Robinson will have a real conundrum to address in selection. With Laidlaw, Weir and Parks to choose from, selecting two from three should not be so difficult.