THE SCOTSMAN REPORTS

No rest for the picked as strong tour squads reflect a shallow pool
ALLAN MASSIE
LOOKING at the squads chosen for the two Tests in South Africa and the Churchill Cup in Canada, it is hard to think of any player with a legitimate grievance at being omitted. In one way this is satisfying; it suggests that Frank Hadden and his coaches have got it right. At the same time it is a little worrying; it confirms, if confirmation is needed, just how shallow is the pool of players from which selection has to be made. Admittedly there are a few missing on account of injury, most notably Chris Cusiter and Simon Taylor. But it's unlikely that any international coach will ever have all his players fit.

The closest thing to a surprise is the choice of Sam Pinder rather than Rory Lawson as reserve scrum-half to Mike Blair in South Africa. But I doubt if this means that Pinder, rather than Lawson, is our number three scrum-half behind Blair and Cusiter. It's rather that Lawson, who has after all spent much of the last couple of seasons on the Edinburgh bench, will benefit from having the opportunity to start, and indeed perhaps run, a full game in Canada. Incidentally he had a notably good game against the Gwent Dragons in Newport last week, where he started the match and played for the first hour. Lawson is captaining the Churchill Cup side, but I would expect coach Steve Bates to see that Brendan McKerchar gets some game time. He has certainly seized the chance offered him at Netherdale by Cusiter's unfortunate injuries.

Everyone will be delighted to see Donnie Macfadyen back after his long spell out of the game. The hard grounds and fast pace of matches in South Africa should suit him if he regains the form he showed in the autumn of 2004. Frank Hadden is going to be faced with a nice puzzle: four into three won't go - so how do you permutate Macfadyen, Jason White, Ally Hogg and Simon Taylor, once Taylor is fit again? Still, any coach would rather find himself wondering who to leave out rather than scratching around to find someone else to put in. And of course there are also Jon Petrie and Kelly Brown to add to the mix.

I daresay Hadden would have been happy to be able to leave some of his stars behind - England have chosen to omit seven or eight of their Six Nations XV from their two match tour of Australia. But of course he can't. To go to South Africa without, say, Chris Paterson, Hugo Southwell, Mike Blair, Scott Murray, Jason White and Ally Hogg would be to invite disaster - the sort of disaster from which players can take a long time to recover.

So all these players who will, barring accidents, be essential members of our World Cup team in less than 18 months now, will be denied the summer break from which they would benefit. Mind you, if they can win one of the Tests in South Africa, the effect on morale will be tremendous. All the same Hadden might have preferred to do without this tour altogether. He understands the importance of freshness, as he showed when he curtailed training early and gave the players a couple of days off before the Calcutta Cup.

Speaking at our Selkirk club dinner last week, he remarked that the RFU's profit last year was £23 million, which is the same as the SRU's debt. This puts things in perspective, and a pretty unpleasant perspective it is too. He also observed that all the Guinness Premiership clubs now have fully-functioning rugby academies, much of the funding coming from public money. The contrast with the way things are here is marked, and rather horrible. It emphasises the point I have made before in this column: that it is not surprising that we lose to England (and France) more often than not. The wonder is that we ever beat them, which makes this season's achievement in defeating both of them all the more terrific.

Meanwhile, uncertainty as to the future of our pro teams remains. Edinburgh's future is secure - no one doubts that. But both Glasgow and the Borders continue to sign players, even though neither club can be sure it will be around come September. This is profoundly unsatisfactory for all concerned, and surely the SRU's chief executive Gordon McKie must do something to clarify matters in the next couple of weeks.

Players from both clubs will be going off on tour to represent their country in June. It is wrong that they should have to do this in ignorance of their prospects for next season.

To end on a happier note: it's good to learn that Marcus Di Rollo has turned down an offer from Castres and re-signed for Edinburgh.

Like so many other players he would have earned more by going to pastures new.

This article was posted on 20-May-2006, 07:24 by Hugh Barrow.