Sun 1 Jan 2006

Nathan Hines, you've been gone too long

Iain Morrison


1 Nathan Hines will return to play for his adopted country in the Six Nations. After sitting out the autumn Tests, the big Aussie will be lured back by what is still the best annual tournament in world rugby - if not always the most competitive. Scotland are desperately short in two positions, Hines is one of them and 120kg of belligerence means that the Scots need fear no-one in the rough stuff.

2 Todd Blackadder will remain with Edinburgh. Whoever takes over the coaching reins there will have a huge task on their hands. The capital side are the flagship for the Scottish pro-teams and, in the right hands, will be a beacon of hope, which explains why Murrayfield are attempting to persuade Blackadder to remain in place. Rumours persist that the big Kiwi will sign an extension with the Gunners in the coming months rather than return to New Zealand. If he does go home, Steve Bates is the favourite for the plum post.


3 Sean Lineen will land the top job in the west.

If the last prediction is true that will mean no head coach's job for Lineen at Edinburgh. Murrayfield view the Grand Slam star as a future candidate for the national coaching job so he needs to be head coach of a pro-team sooner rather than later. There are no natural vacancies but the bosses may be tempted to hand Lineen the opportunity to prove his credentials with Glasgow. He may prefer to go for the Edinburgh job if only to avoid the commuting.

4 Scotland will win two championship matches. When France and England travel to Murrayfield the result is usually a grand slam or a whitewash, with the latter rather more prevalent than the former. However, this year will be different. Frank Hadden will cajole his team to two, maybe three, wins to finish the table in a respectable fourth ahead of Italy and Ireland. France should win the championship.

5 Hadden will finally unpack his bags and decorate his office. The above results will ensure that the national coach continues to inhabit his Murrayfield digs up to and including the 2007 World Cup rather than exercise his parachute option back to Edinburgh.

6 Dan Parks and Phil Godman will share the fly-half duties during the Six Nations. Nothing Hadden has done these last five years with Edinburgh suggests that the Scotland coach believes Chris Paterson is the man for the job. In similar fashion, Mike Blair needs to be playing regular rugby in that position and his brother David is a better bet in any event. Gregor Townsend looked rusty in recent outings so only Gordon Ross may yet spoil this forecast.

7 Ally Dickinson and Rob Dewey will win caps. Part of Scotland's problem is that some young players are promoted too early simply because there are so few options. Despite these reservations, we should expect to see Dickinson and Dewey make their Scotland debuts. this coming year. Dewey might already have done so had he not been injured. Dickinson is touted as a tight-head but he looked fearsomely proficient on the other side of the scrum when he came on for Edinburgh against the Borders and that is where Scotland most need him.

8 Scotland's under-21 side will better the sixth place they achieved in the last World Championships. Including apprentices, the youngsters will have something like 15 professional players within their squad which is about 14 more than last year. With John Barclay and Johnny Beattie leading the charge, the under-21s should show up well in France.

9 Hawks will win the BT Premier 1 Championship. Admittedly this is less a prediction than a mathematical probability but had they lost a close encounter against Ayr last time out - only an injury time penalty from Mike Adamson saved them - the two-time champions' bubble might have burst. As it is, they will win this season's top spot with something to spare and ensure at least one of these predictions comes good.

10 Scottish rugby will enjoy a happier, more successful and less fractious year in 2006.

And that, with a little luck, should be my second sure thing. Happy New Year.

This article was posted on 1-Jan-2006, 16:13 by Hugh Barrow.