THE HERALD REPORTS


Hadden puts Jackson on the fast track
KEVIN FERRIE, Chief Rugby Writer January 21 2009
Ruaridh Jackson's remarkable rise through the Scottish rugby ranks continued yesterday when the 20-year-old was named in the national squad for the RBS 6 Nations Championship, having made just one start for Glasgow Warriors this season.

His inclusion was the only real surprise announced at Murrayfield yesterday by Frank Hadden, Scotland's head coach.

While Hadden generally likes to work with two XVs for game-style training purposes, he also wanted additional specialist cover, which explains both the inclusion of Jackson - one of just two uncapped players among the 33 named along with Edinburgh prop Geoff Cross - and a third scrum-half, with both Chris Cusiter and Rory Lawson vying for a bench place covering Mike Blair, who remains team captain.



In the forwards he has opted to bring in an extra lock in the shape of Craig Hamilton, rather than ask Jason White to operate as a lock in training matches, leaving the former captain clear to challenge for his preferred position at blindside flanker.

The squad's development is at an interesting stage, and while its make-up was pretty obvious, there is now genuine competition for places in every position and even Blair must look to his laurels such has been Cusiter's form this season.

"The selection of the 33 certainly didn't take very long. I imagine we'll spend a lot more time when it comes to the 15 and the 22," Hadden acknowledged.

He said he had directly contacted two of those left out, Gordon Ross and Scott MacLeod.

In Ross's case, it was to explain that he was not now behind Jackson, but that the management were looking at what is best for both players.

"Gordon asked for permission to go to South Africa next week with his club Saracens and given that he's not had a lot of game time this year we thought that was a good opportunity for him," said Hadden.

"I explained to him that we were going to include Ruaridh but it didn't mean he had jumped above Gordon in the pecking order.

"It's still important to have Ruaridh in because we see that he is a young talent with a lot of potential and part of the fast-tracking that we want to do for him involved exposing him to situations like this."

Saying which, Hadden did not rule out the possibility of Jackson playing at stand-off in this season's championship.

"Given the number of stand-offs we've got, he's got to be in the frame," the coach warned. "Anything could happen, but I would say primarily we're looking at him to get some A team experience at stand-off before he plays for Scotland."

Asked to clarify whether Jackson or Ross was likelier to be brought in should either Phil Godman, who tweaked a hamstring last weekend, or Dan Parks, who has had knee problems this season, drop out at any stage, he said it would depend on timing.

"There are circumstances, depending on when things happen in the championship and what's happened in the interim if Ruaridh gets a bit more game time. What's he played now, one-and-a-half games at stand-off for Glasgow? There's a bit to go yet," he quite rightly pointed out.

"In some ways it's disappointing that he hasn't had more exposure to playing stand-off in the last couple of years, but realistically 2011 World Cup has to be a target for him."

MacLeod was similarly told he needed to be playing more having fallen out of favour at Llanelli Scarlets since the second of the investigations into irregular doping results that he produced last year.

"I explained there was no way he could be considered for this squad given the game time he'd had," said the coach, noting that the lock has also been nursing an ankle injury.

His omission has provided a chance for Craig Hamilton, but the Edinburgh second-row man is another who is essentially in the squad for experience, according to Mike Brewer, the forwards coach.

"Craig is in similar circumstances to Ruaridh Jackson, very much a work in progress. There's elements of his game that we feel still need to improve, primarily his physicality and body position, but he's a natural footballer who has a very high work-rate and I think in time he will be a very good international footballer," said the New Zealander.

In general terms, Hadden admitted that the weekend's performances, and particularly Glasgow Warriors' astonishing win in Toulouse, had given him pause for thought.

"It wouldn't be betraying a confidence to say that after I watched Edinburgh on Friday night I was convinced that a lot of Edinburgh players would be the right ones for the job and then after watching the Glasgow game you change your mind again," he grinned.

Noting, however, that there are only five significant injury worries at the moment compared to more than a dozen this time last year, he made it clear that he preferred the problems he is having to deal with this time around.

This article was posted on 21-Jan-2009, 08:12 by Hugh Barrow.