Hugo Southwell ruled out of World Cup

news on the BBC stating that Southwell is out the world cup squad. Shame for him, but great news for us. No chance of him being picked and donkeying his way into the team

S

cotland head coach Andy Robinson has told BBC Scotland that full-back Hugo Southwell will miss the World Cup due to a knee injury.

The Stade Francais player damaged his knee in May, missing the Amlin Challenge Cup final.

And he has not recovered sufficiently to be considered for the autumn trip to New Zealand.

Capped 59 times, the 31-year-old played in this year's Six Nations defeats to France and Wales.

He lost his starting place to Chris Paterson after sustaining a facial injury, following a reckless tackle on Lee Byrne at Murrayfield.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/14312607.stm

Who should be Full Back - Patterson, R Lamont, or someone else?

Bit harsh, always seemed a well rounded if unspectacular full back. I presume Paterson will be there for his defence and kicking abilities. Which may well mean that Parks can be relegated to the bench and a more attacking fly half like Jackson given the 10 shirt.

Maybe harsh, but after years of poor kicking, back decision making and generally an abiltity to snuffle out any attacking threat of our own team, was a little releived he is not selected

Although I am sorry he is injured

formerly known as Sam wrote:Bit harsh, always seemed a well rounded if unspectacular full back. I presume Paterson will be there for his defence and kicking abilities. Which may well mean that Parks can be relegated to the bench and a more attacking fly half like Jackson given the 10 shirt.

fka Sam, Jackson is already pencilled in for the 10 shirt, and while I would be tempted to leave Parks at home in Cardiff, never mind the bench, and go with Paterson as cover, I suspect that Robbo is a little more conservative than that ... sadly

I reckon this changes very little in AR's mind. The wing/full back positions were almost always going to be covered by :


Mossy
R. Lamont
Cuthbert
Danielli
Evans

I don't really think Southwell would have featured in the squad anyway. Shame for him because he is not a bad player, he has had a poor season though and Cuthbert would be my logical replacement.

I expect Cuthbert to start either against Italy or Ireland in our warm up match, if he Impresses I wiuld expect him to displace Nikki Walker on the plane to New Zealand.

Southwell can't make it! Hammer blow

funnyExiledScot wrote:Southwell can't make it! Hammer blow

I cannae quite make out if that has a sarcastic undertone.....

Radge - I don't think Cuthbert will go. I think CP and R Lamont will be taken as cover at 15. We only have 13 backs most likely to pick from, so I doubt AR will take all three.

My expectation is that he'll take three 9's, two 10's, two 12's, two 13's, two wings and two 15's. So of the five players you've named, one will drop out I think, with Cuthbert the most likely.

I think there are two straight choices in the back three: Walker vs Danielli and R Lamont vs Cuthbert.

I do agree though, Southwell was never really in the equation.

Shame, the finest nickname in rugby will be missing from the WC then - no cries of For F***s Sake Hugo ever time he touches the ball.

Shame for Hugo, but a blessing for Scotland. His international form has been dreadful recently.
If only he could have produced moments like these in a Scotland shirt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ezV9skiUcg#t=0m44s

two wings and two 15's.

Only one back three replacement? Surely they'll take five.

In the forwards 4 props, 3 hookers, 4 second row and 5 backrow. Would cover the bases and that's only 16. Meaning 14 backs and the additional winger.

Sam, because of Euan Murray's aversion to playing on the Sabbath, we'll likely have 5 props going, so it's a 17/13 split rather than 16/14 I think.

Because Ansbro can play both 13 and wing (if needed), and Sean Lamont plays both 12 and wing, I think AR will only take 4 notional back three players, plus two centres happy to play on the wing (and Evans as a wing happy to play centre).

GLove - absolutely, Southwell always had the ability, but in a Scotland jersey he was far too conservative. I'm not sure whether it was Hadden's coaching of him in particular, but even under AR he was a kick first, run second full back. It's infuriating, because as that clip showed, he has a nice turn of pace, he's a balanced runner, and his kicking and handling are both better than Rory Lamont.

The difference between the two is really attitude. Lamont likes to run with the ball and break tackles, whereas Southwell seems frozen by the fear of making a mistake, and so kicks the ball away (often badly). If anything Southwell has the raw materials to be a better player, and certainly a better footballer, but unfortunately that never really came through for Scotland.

Shuggie for me was always solid if unspectacular.

I always felt Lamont would have been the "spiritual successor" to Gavin Hastings. Big guy, good running lines, quick, gutsy and determined. However he has been plagued with an endless stream of injuries and whenever he seemed to build up some momentum his arm would fall off or something.

I seriously doubt Paterson was ever a candidate for full back when he made his debut, but sadly he has been passed around the backline like a dirty magazine. His versitilty his biggest strength and biggest weakness.

I think the mastermind behind CP at 15 was actually McGeechan, who has been quite open about his belief that young stand-offs benefit from a stint at 15, because it allows then to see the game from a different perspective, understand how outside backs play off the stand-off and develop a long kicking game. He did the same with Cipriani at Wasps.

There was also Gregor Townsend still playing at 10 when he broke through.

The problem was that no-one ever thought to move him back to what at the time was his natural position. Players like Hodge, Ross and Laney got the nod, and what could have been an era of face paced running rugby turned out to be some of the darkest years of rugby Scotland has ever known.

Even Stephen Jones at the Sunday Times, that great judge, couldn't understand why Scotland didn't base their game around Taylor, Blair and Paterson as the 8, 9 and 10, and try and get some pace into the game. That way even Andy Henderson and Andrew Craig might have looked ok.

although i didnt wish injury on him, this is good news for scotland.

This should confirm Mossy and Lamont as our fullbacks, cuthbert faded in the second half of the season and im not entirely sold on him anyway, though i feel he has the potential.

the question is, who gets the 15 jersey? Patersons having a renaissance at the moment, obviously a good six nations but he also had one of his best domestic seasons in a while, touching down 5 times in the Rabbie (i think). On the other hand, Lamont might finally be able to bring that defence destroying, wrecking ball running we know he can do now that he has some more creative players inside him. Id love to see him running onto Seans offloads in the centre channel.

Its six and a half dozen i suppose, and id be happy to see either of them in the starting 15.

Well I think there's another dimension to this which is whether we can trust Jackson to kick goals in the big knock out games. His record says we can't. That would suggest that CP has to play, and based on the 6 Nations, I have no issue with that. I liked the idea of him coming is as a second distributor to compensate for Sean Lamont's lack of finesse.

Rory Lamont is a good option to have though, particularly as I think we need to grab at least one bonus point against Georgia and Romania. The problem is that he'll likely play with Parks at 10, so that partially negates his attacking opportunities.

funnyExiledScot wrote:That way even Andy Henderson and Andrew Craig might have looked ok.

Lets not say thing's we can't take back!

Imperialbigdave wrote: On the other hand, Lamont might finally be able to bring that defence destroying, wrecking ball running we know he can do now that he has some more creative players inside him. Id love to see him running onto Seans offloads in the centre channel.

+1 on that one too, but what to do with Mossy who is a very capable first receiver and penalty taker to take the pressure off Jackson a wee bit. I suppose Jackson will eventually have to "flee the nest" so to speak sooner or later, maybe a good idea to get some regular kicking under his belt in some of our "easier" games in the world cup?

Well I certainly wouldn't have an issue with Jackson taking the kicks in one of the warm-up games to see how he gets on, and even when CP is on the field, Jackson is the better long range kicker I think. He just doesn't have the percentages with Glasgow that we can rely on, and against Argentina we need to take all our scoring opportunities.

The other option of course is Laidlaw as a kicker, but he's rightly behind Cusiter and Lawson in the 9 pecking order.

Hoped Southwell wouldn't have been picked, this just makes it a certainty. Saw him play well for Stade but (like Parks) too low a percentage of really good games for Scotland, although left boot was often handy.

Paterson's kicking percentages weren't always good at the start. He worked on it until they became remarkable. Hope Jackson can go someway the same. Happy with CP as FB but would prefer to start RL and have CP on the bench as all round cover.

BE - I'm hoping that CP himself has been working with Jackson re: kicking. As you say, and perhaps one of the reasons CP didn't start at 10 for Scotland early doors, CP's kicking stats weren't so hot early on, and he worked hard to improve on it.

Usual game plan - pick Dan Parks and hope you get penalties Rest of team doesn't matter

red_stag wrote:Usual game plan - pick Dan Parks and hope you get penalties Rest of team doesn't matter

Knicked that game plan from Ireland with ROG?! :run2:

Yes except we did it better

[waves 6 Nations and Heineken Cup medals at Asbo]

Furry muff, can't bliwdy argue with facts. FACT. END OF. !!!!

Jackson is an international class fly half. With weir snapping at his heels for both Glasgow and Scotland, Jackson will really need to raise all aspects of his game. Including his kicking.

They could do one warm up game with CP, one with Rory. To cover the Kicking during Rory's game, maybe a backline of:

9.Blair
10.Laidlaw
11.Walker/evans
12.Jackson
13.Lamont
14.Ansbro
15.Lamont

Have to go with the flow here and say that it is a shame but in the same breath say that he is a bit humpty so it isn't the end of the world.
As a long-shot, Cairns played FB for Edinburgh for a while. Granted, he didn't it particualrly well but he could cover centre and FB?
Lamont and Patterosn as FBs as I don't think Robbo will take a risk with Cuthbert in what is essentially knock-out rugby from match 1 for Scotland.

I do feel for the oh dear but agree with the majority here that a combo of Mossy and Rory offers more. Robbo (and Stade for that matter) subscribed to the view that Shrug's big left boot was perfect for the territory game of the 6 N's, when coupled with a regular 10. Hopefully the fields of a NZ spring will suit a running game.

On a more positive note the Scotsman reports Ross Rennie is fit and well. Do we think he'll make the plane? Robbo is a fan, but can we afford two guys who only cover one position. I think we can...

nickj wrote:On a more positive note the Scotsman reports Ross Rennie is fit and well. Do we think he'll make the plane? Robbo is a fan, but can we afford two guys who only cover one position. I think we can...

This topic has a thread of its own!

Here ye go Nick: https://www.606v2.com/t10419-it-s-all-about-the-turnover-but-it-s-not-apple

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:Here ye go Nick: https://www.606v2.com/t10419-it-s-all-about-the-turnover-but-it-s-not-apple

As, RuggerRadge has already put in a sneaky link above

Without being to happy that anyone has an injury at such a big time of their career, i'm happy about this. Sorry but he is a dreadful player, really offers nothing except being a good tackler.

monty junior wrote:Without being to happy that anyone has an injury at such a big time of their career, i'm happy about this. Sorry but he is a dreadful player, really offers nothing except being a good tackler.

I wouldnt even have given him that.

His main strenght seemed to always be quoted as have a big boot. Never saw it go that far and always straight into touch or down the throat of the opposition.

Thank God he is out - a total embarrassment viz. his performance v Wales this year (and that was only 20mins before the buffoon went off injured).

Please Sean Lineen not for Glasgow under any circumstances - he is utter crud !