Young stand-offs handed chance to impress

SCOTLAND will use the defence of the A team's IRB Nations Cup title and the IRB Junior World Championships this summer to fast-track some of the nation's talented young stand-offs in a bid to provide a long-term solution to what has often been a problem position.

The shadow squad, led by Glasgow coach Sean Lineen, will thrust Edinburgh Accies' promising 19-year-old Alex Blair into competitive action when the Nations Cup begins in Romania in June while 18-year-old Duncan Weir of Glasgow Hawks will join the under-20 squad at the Juniors in Argentina.

Scottish Rugby's Director of Performance Rugby, Graham Lowe, has identified accelerating the development of promising young Scottish stand-offs as a key area to focus on given the dearth of quality options national coach Andy Robinson has to call on at No10.

"We believe it makes sense we look at the opportunities to which we can expose some of our up and coming young talent over the summer," said Lowe.

"So, in discussion with Eamon John, the Scotland under-20 head coach, we are recommending that Alex Blair will now be part of the Scotland A squad for the IRB Nations Cup in Bucharest.

"Furthermore we are recommending that Duncan Weir, who has already been part of the Scotland under-20 squad this season and was a key figure for the national under-19 team in their victories over their Italian and French counterparts, will now be involved with the Scotland under-20 squad for the IRB Junior World Championships in Argentina in June."

Blair and Weir have both played for their respective clubs in Scottish Hydro Premiership Division 1 this past season and both have now been promoted from the National Academy and will start next season as professional players, Blair with Edinburgh and Weir with Glasgow.

National coach Andy Robinson said: "Within the national management team we spoke earlier in the season about our desire to develop stand-offs and both Gregor Townsend and Duncan Hodge have been working on that project.

"Stand-off is a key position and if we can develop more players to compete alongside Dan Parks, Phil Godman, Ruaridh Jackson, David Blair and Colin Gregor then that can only be for the benefit of Scottish Rugby overall."

Scotland A's matches in the IRB Nations Cup will be on 11 June against Georgia with an 8pm kick-off local time (6pm BST); on 15 June against Namibia, kick-off 6pm local; and on 20 June against Argentina Jaguars, kick-off 8pm local.

Scotland under-20 have been drawn in Pool C of their World Championship alongside Australia, South Africa and Tongo.