CHANGED SCOTS MUST WIN, SAYS u21 COACH PAXTON

Scott Wight replaces stand-off David Blair in squad

Date Posted: 15-Jun-05

Scotland team to play Canada in the IRB Under 21 World Championship in Mendoza, Argentina on Friday 17 June at 1pm (local time)

15 Alan Nash (Watsonians & East of Scotland Institute of Sport)

14 Ben Addison (Stirling County & Central Scotland Institute of Sport)
13 Ben Cairns (Currie & Scottish Institute of Sport)
12 Garry Law (Hawick & East of Scotland Institute of Sport)
11 Nic De Luca (Heriot's & Scottish Institute of Sport)

10 Michael Adamson (Glasgow Hawks)
9 Alasdhair McFarlane (GHA) CAPTAIN

1 Stuart Fenwick (Ayr)
2 Ross Ford (The Borders & Scottish Institute of Sport)
3 Moray Low (Aberdeen GSFP)
4 Sean Tomes (Newcastle Falcons)
5 Ian Nimmo (Heriot's & Tayside and Fife Institute of Sport)
6 Colin White (Stirling County & Central Scotland Institute of Sport)
8 John Beattie (Glasgow Rugby & West of Scotland Institute of Sport)
7 Alan MacDonald (Heriot's & East of Scotland Institute of Sport)

Substitutes

16 Stevie Lawrie (Watsonians & East of Scotland Institute of Sport)
17 Stuart Corsar (Aberdeen GSFP & Grampian Institute of Sport)
18 James Eddie (GHA, Glasgow Rugby & West of Scotland Institute of Sport)
19 Scott Forrest (Glasgow Hawks & West of Scotland Institute of Sport)
20 Greig Laidlaw (Jed-Forest)
21 Iain Kennedy (GHA & West of Scotland Institute of Sport)
22 Douglas Flockhart (Currie)

Scotland have made six changes, of which two are positional, to the team that was defeated 24-8 by Wales in the second round of games in the IRB Under 21 World Championship on Monday.

In the forwards, Ian Nimmo comes into the second row for his first game of the tournament, having had a case of gastro enteritis following the squad’s arrival in Argentina. He replaces James Eddie who moves to the bench.

In the back row, Alan MacDonald takes over from tour captain Neil Cochrane at openside and John Beattie fills the No.8 jersey in place of Scott Forrest, who joins the replacements. In the backs, Michael Adamson comes in at stand-off with centre Nic De Luca making a direct positional swap with winger Ben Cairns.

On the changes, Scotland Under-21 coach Iain Paxton said: “Going into this match we made a decision to rest some of our players. It is an intense tournament with five games in 17 days so we looked at the contributions our players have made and decided to bring in some fresh legs for this match.”

Paxton knows that his side needs to take full points from the encounter with Canada, having lost to both Wales and Australia (28-22) so far in the pool stages. He said: “Obviously we’ve got to get something from this game if we are to compete in the areas we want to in the final stages.

“We have to get the correct result and that may also mean a bonus point from Friday’s match. From now on in it is important to win the next three matches in order to finish as high up the order as possible. We’ll forget everything that is going on around us, as far as other teams are concerned, and there is no reason why we can’t achieve our goal,” he added.

Paxton also announced today that Melrose’s stand-off Scott Wight is flying out this afternoon to join them for the remainder of the tournament. He will replace David Blair who injured his hamstring within the first fifteen minutes of Monday’s defeat.

On the injury to Blair, younger brother of Scotland scrum-half Mike, Paxton said: “He was assessed yesterday and for us player welfare is at the forefront of our concerns. There was a chance we could have him up and running again with intense physio but that wouldn’t have been fair.

“He has another year at this level as does Scott Wight who we are flying out today. That situation is ideal for us as they are both valuable playmakers. Scott has a massive boot on him and with the air being so thin at this altitude, he’ll be able to kick it a fair distance.

“Scott is something of an unknown quantity out here as all the teams have been studying videos of the games but they won’t know anything about him. He’s got pace and we feel he’ll definitely bring something to the table,” he added.

Wing/centre Ben Cairns was also troubled with hamstring difficulty in Monday’s game, coming off after scoring a try at the beginning of the second half. On Cairns, Paxton said: “Ben has made good progress. It was more of a severe cramp in his leg but I think we were right to take him off when we did. He has responded well to treatment from our physio Sandy Lyall.”

David Blair will stay with the squad in Argentina to carry on with his rehabilitation. Mendoza is four hours behind BST.

This article was posted on 15-Jun-2005, 16:57 by Hugh Barrow.