SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY REPORTS
Front-row and centre priorities for Hadden in seeking options
IAIN MORRISON

IT IS like the elephant in the living-room, the giant beast that overshadows the game, the forthcoming World Cup.

Ahead of various ventures to South Africa, Canada and France - for the Under-21 world championships - the Scotland squad had taken on a settled look with perhaps as few as three World Cup starting places up for grabs. That figure has probably doubled in the wake of the summer's action.

When asked what he was looking for between now and next September, national coach Frank Hadden asked for just one thing - more competition for places. He attributed Mike Blair's superb form to the fact that Chris Cusiter is breathing down his scrum-half's neck, and would love that sort of incentive across the board.

Competition exists in many areas, but he specifically invited two players to step up to the mark, and to do so sooner rather than later: Glasgow tight-head prop Euan Murray and Edinburgh centre Rob Dewey, who travelled to South Africa with the squad to give him a taste of touring.

The areas pinpointed are the two where Hadden has too few options, though front-row problems are centred more on the left, the loose-head, rather than right side of the scrum. The three first-choice pro team tight-heads last year were from overseas, in Dave Hewett, Paul Thomson and Kevin Tchacuk, which suggests that the left hand is not talking to the right.

Murray has been the coming man for some time. While he has the talent and temperament for the big time, the giant prop needs a little luck to avoid the injuries that stick by him with all the tenacity of Greyfriars Bobby. If he can put a run of matches together at the start of next season, he will put pressure on Bruce Douglas and Gavin Kerr, whose shortcomings as a loose-head were cruelly exposed in Durban.

Craig Smith undertook plenty overtime during the past season with Edinburgh's All Black, Hewett, and it showed with a solid performance in the second test against South Africa. What Hadden now needs most of all is Allan Jacobsen back to his best, which is exactly where reports from the tour to Canada placed the popular prop.

The A team did far better than most observers had expected in reaching the Churchill Cup final, allowing several players to stake their claims, and foremost among them were wingers Simon Danielli and Nikki Walker. Both have regained the art of scoring: Danielli grabbed a try in each of the first two matches, and Walker, a rather better performer than when he was capped by Ian McGeechan back in 2002, scored one in the final.

With these two returning to something like their best and Simon Webster the most impressive Scot on the field in Port Elizabeth, Hadden is suddenly spoiled for choice out wide. The man whose place is most under threat is Sean Lamont, who has not shown well since scoring a brace against France in the opening match of the Six Nations. If things in general, and the ball in particular, are not going his way, the leggy winger tends to disappear rather than look for work, and he has not found the space to counter-attack from broken play, as he did so effectively against New Zealand last November.

Hadden has a similar rich pot of talent in the second row, with at least five locks of test-match quality fighting for the right to start. Anyone who writes off Scott Murray is making a mistake, but the veteran will need to up the ante after Ally Kellock made himself at home in the No.5 jersey for the second Springbok test. At the beginning of the season, some fool wrote that Kellock was not ready for international rugby, and I am delighted to be proved wrong. He is probably playing better than any Scottish lock at the moment.

Nathan Hines is assured of his place to bulk up a lightweight pack, but in a perfect world Scott MacLeod would be chosen. A former basketball player, like Murray, he boasts skills to spare, but the former Green and future Scarlet will probably have to wait until after the World Cup to claim his starting place alongside Kellock.

Dewey is in a similar situation in that France '07 will probably come a little too early. No-one can deny his awesome physical presence, but it would be tempting to have a Kiwi-style second five-eighth - Aaron Mauger and Matt Giteau fit the mould - to shoulder some of the fly-half's decision-making burden. Scotland do not seem to produce that type of player, though Calum MacRae at the Borders comes close.

Video tapes of the Churchill Cup were flown to Hadden in South Africa, and not just for fun, because the midfield remains the Achilles heel of his squad. Graeme Morrison was the stand-out Scot in the Churchill Cup final, but he perhaps lacks half a yard of pace to play No.13 at international level.

Gordon Ross took his chance at stand-off, and while he did not offer anything outstanding, he performed pretty competently, which is probably more important. He kicked well from hand, and a cleverly-weighted grubber made Webster's try. Ross is in the driving seat now, but he has been there before - and failed to capitalise.

This article: http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/rugby.cfm?id=927832006

This article was posted on 25-Jun-2006, 13:20 by Hugh Barrow.