THE HERALD REPORTS

STUART MURRAY March 07 2006

Scottish rugby fans have been asked to show their support for tradition by turning out in force to back a breakthrough initiative in Dublin on Friday.
Announcing the first Scotland Clubs team, who play Ireland at Donnybrook, Gary Parker, the coach, pleaded with the fans who will be in the city for the following day\'s full international to turn out in force and get behind his players.
\"I have heard that there is a lot of excitement about the game over there and most of these boys will never have played in front of a crowd of that size before. We need the Scottish supporters to get there and give them all the backing they can,\" he said. To add further credibility to the fixture, the Scotland team has already picked up a sponsor in Standard Life Investments, with the company saying it hopes to be there for the long term.
Parker has named a starting XI culled from eight clubs, dominated by Glasgow Hawks, the triple champions, who have four, but also with solid contributions from Melrose and Boroughmuir.
Tam McVie, of Heriot\'s, will captain the team from the back row. \"It is a position of huge responsibility,\" said Parker. \"When you have such a limited time to pull the side together, you need a strong captain with a big influence and a wealth of experience.\"
Though Friday\'s fixture will be a historic first, it is also a powerful echo of the past. For well over 120 years international sides were selected from amateur club players who would come together only in the days before the game and then head back to their jobs. This is a repeat of that and the team sheet is full of all the professions that make up the modern club side. Assuming that the idea takes off, it could be the start of a regular series of internationals at this level.
At the same time, it will be a chance for some to drop a large hint to the coaching teams at the three professional clubs, none more so than Mark Robertson, the son of Keith, an internationalist from the amateur era. \"I think my dad was more chuffed than I was,\" said the 21-year-old yesterday.
\"I was something of a late maturer and missed out on age-grade rugby. If I perform my chances of getting some sort of contract will be higher.\"
Scotland M Adamson (Glasgow Hawks); M Robertson (Melrose), J Murray (Melrose), S Smith (Glasgow Hawks), R Couper (Boroughmuir); M Strang (Glasgow Hawks), C Cusiter (Boroughmuir); B McNeil (Hawick), W Mitchell (Melrose), M Low (Aberdeen GSFP), B MacFarlane (Stirling County), R Maxton (Glasgow Hawks), T McVie (Heriot\'s) (C), A Martyn (Boroughmuir), A Dunlop (Biggar). Replacements: D Cunningham (Boroughmuir), E McLaren (Biggar), S Warnock (Glasgow Hawks), A Jamie Murray (Melrose), A McFarlane (Ayr), S Duffy (Glasgow Hawks), R Borthwick (Stewart\'s-Melville FP)

This article was posted on 7-Mar-2006, 07:59 by Hugh Barrow.