Scotland V Georgia Team

15 Rory Lamont (Toulon) 25 caps, 6 tries, 30 points

14 Max Evans (Castres) 21 caps, 3 tries, 15 points
13 Nick De Luca (Edinburgh) 26 caps, 1 try, 5 points
12 Graeme Morrison (Glasgow Warriors) 30 caps, 3 tries, 15 points
11 Sean Lamont (Scarlets) 57 caps, 8 tries, 40 points

10 Dan Parks (Cardiff Blues) 63 caps, 4 tries, 15 conversions, 48 penalties, 14 drop-goals, 236 points
9 Rory Lawson (Gloucester) 28 caps CAPTAIN

1 Allan Jacobsen (Edinburgh) 57 caps
2 Scott Lawson (Gloucester) 29 caps, 2 tries, 10 points
3 Euan Murray (Newcastle Falcons) 39 caps, 2 tries, 10 points
4 Nathan Hines (Clermont Auvergne) 74 caps, 2 tries, 10 points
5 Jim Hamilton (Gloucester) 32 caps, 1 try, 5 points
6 Alasdair Strokosch (Gloucester) 20 caps, 1 try, 5 points
7 Ross Rennie (Edinburgh) 9 caps
8 Kelly Brown VICE-CAPTAIN (Saracens) 47 caps, 4 tries, 20 points

Substitutes

16 Ross Ford (Edinburgh) 50 caps, 2 tries, 10 points
17 Geoff Cross (Edinburgh) 7 caps
18 Alasdair Dickinson (Sale Sharks) 22 caps, 1 try, 5 points
19 Richie Gray (Glasgow Warriors) 13 caps
20 Richie Vernon (Sale Sharks) 13 caps
21 Chris Cusiter (Glasgow Warriors) 54 caps, 3 tries, 15 points
22 Chris Paterson (Edinburgh) 106 caps, 22 tries, 90 conversions, 167 penalties, 3 drop-goals, 800 points


I'd rather have seen Vernon at 8, but no real complaints.

Our scrum was going back at a rate of knots against Romania, hopefully this pack will fare better.

Oh and before I forget, Dan please please practice your restarts, your last 2 restarts were enough to drive a scotland fan to drink

Well he ain't half brought out the big guns for this one! You'd like to think that pack should get the job done. Thought he'd go with 5 forwards on the bench too.

Thought Ford would start but he'll at least add some grunt later in the game.

Only worry about that team is a lack of mobility, which will play into Georgias hands.

If Lawson didn't start this one, we'd have Ford starting every game. Best to have him fresher for the Argies and England.

I thought Vernon should have started at 8, just to add some mobility... but we still have him on the bench and Gray too. Fantastic impact subs to have I suppose. If the backs do their jobs properly the lack of mobility in the forwards won't be an issue.

Good point - bring on the mobile forwards when the big Georgians are hopefully tiring

On a different point - he'd rather Geoff cross (whose just played 80 mins) on the bench than moray low?

Amazing how downhill he's gone in the last year.

RDW, moray low's absence was the only surprise in that selection for me too? Is he so far behind Cross and Murray now? Has he fallen so far from his performances two summers ago down in Argentina?

I hope that Lawson and Parks can get our backs moving as well as they were against Romania, but the first thing we've got to skis make sure the set pieces are solid. Then we need to run the massive Georgian pack around the field, keeping the ball awayfrom their forwards. Think we'll need patience in this one

The Pack is pretty formidable actually. Arguably the biggest tight 5 we could put on the pitch. I'm really hoping we can dominate or at least achieve parity in the Scrum.

Hines and Hamilton are also 2 pretty astute lineout operators so our set piece should be pretty tight.

The backs too should be able to inject some power and pace and with NDL and Maxi at 14 & 14 we should have a wee bit flair and creativity if the more direct routes are not working.


A lot of Scottish fans (myself included) have been a wee bit put out by our shaky performance against Romania, however as other posters have pointed out if we had been offered a bonus point win against Romania with no injuries before the match had started I reckon every one of us would have taken it.

Now the cobwebs and pre world cup Jitters are done I hope Scotland can convincingly defeat Romania on Wednesday and throw down a marker for the Pumas the weekend after.

I hope when you do get some quality ball! the backs will be able to do something about it.

Asbo, is Danielli unlucky not to get at least a bench spot? Surely he would be cover for a back three spot?

Rava, dont see Danielli covering FB and therein lies his issue - think he will be behind Max Evans and Schlong in the winger's pecking order too

He has played for Ulster at FB, although not the most inspiring in the position. I would agree on Evans. He looked really sharp when he got the ball against Romania. Just feel Danielli didn't do a lot wrong in the game. But maybe I'm biased?

Manky-Flanker wrote:
Oh and before I forget, Dan please please practice your restarts, your last 2 restarts were enough to drive a scotland fan to drink

You guys need an excuse for drinks??

Well the Romania match was a perfect hitout for this game. Expect the same combative approach in the forwards from the Georgians. Scotland will be disappointed by their first up game and should be mindful of the fact that bonus points might well come into play with their toughest games coming up against Argentinia and England.

Our pack were way too soft against Romania. I rate Richie Gray and Al Kellock as players but they lack the aggression, strength, abrasiveness or "Grunt" (if you prefer) of Jim Hamilton and Wagga. With "Psycho" Chunk, "Yellow Card" Lawson and our muscular christian packing down against Georgia and another frontrow on the bench waiting to come on I reckon we'll do better in the scrum.

The pressure is I think on the backs to make the most of the ball they are provided with. Parks needs a good game because although Jackson was good in areas he was poor in others. I hear a lot of talk about Jackson being work in progress, whilst this it true to an extent he has been at the big table for a good few games now and he is now under pressure to prove he can hack it at this level. Especialy with Weir and Laidlaw persuing his job back home.

Morrison will need to do the attritional yards as he always does. Punching holes and creating space for NDL and Evans to run into. Likewise I would hope the Lamont brothers will be hungry for the ball too and Rory can break into the line and Sean comes off his wing.

As Wales proved on Sunday though if you can contest the breakdown effectively it does not really matter if your set piece is not functioning well.

The selected backline is exactly what I expected AR would do. I'd have probably wanted Jackson to play, but on the basis that Rory Lamont deserves a start at 15, we can't rely on Jackson to kick the points so Parks must start.

The pack is interesting. I'm really pleased that he's gone with Hamilton/Hines with Gray on the bench. That's a great call. Euan Murray had to start at 3, he's still our best scrummager in my view, and Chunk at loosehead for at least 60 minutes makes sense. I'd have thought AR would take the same approach with Ford, and start him bringing him off on 60, but I've no real beef with Lawson these days. He showed up well at Glaws towards the end of the season and him cameos in the warm-ups and against Romania were busy.

I'm surprised that Vernon gets dropped, but he's on the bench and makes a great impact sub. Strokosch and Rennie were always going to pair up for one of the first two matches, I think it's a matter of rotation. If Rennie has a stormer though, Barclay could be out on his ear for the big knockout game.

The only worrying aspect of this is Low not being on the bench. Seems to me that AR will either go with the 5/2 split on the subs bench against Argentina, or just have Dickinson on the bench at prop. Between those two options, I'd go with the 5/2 split. If Dickinson appears at tighthead, we're doomed. That of course means that Low will be on the bench against Argentina not having played at all in this tournament.

Let's hope the Georgians are rusty in their first outing. I must say, watching Argentina against England has made me very nervous.

kiakahaaotearoa wrote:Well the Romania match was a perfect hitout for this game. Expect the same combative approach in the forwards from the Georgians. Scotland will be disappointed by their first up game and should be mindful of the fact that bonus points might well come into play with their toughest games coming up against Argentinia and England.

Agreed. There's a chance this group comes down to a 3-way contest (if we lose to Argentina and beat England), which is why in this group more than any other I think the bonus points and tries scored could come into the equation. Obviously we must focus 100% on getting the win first, and given how we performed against Romania, we need to make sure first and foremost we take points when offered at every opportunity. However, we won't beat Georgia or Argentina in an arm wrestle, and we need to do to both what England could not do to Argentina, and that's play with movement and intensity. Georgia are the perfect warm-up game for Argentina in terms of how we must play. Even if it looks lateral at times, and even if we aren't making the sort of yards we need to, ball retention and movement are key. We are fitter and better drilled than both these teams. If we play an intense and fast-paced game, they will lose their shape, just as Romania did in the last 10 minutes when we finally risked our arm. The benefit of this approach is that it also increases our chances of scoring 4 tries. Little things will matter. Switching the kick-off to make their forwards run across the pitch, taking line-outs and scrums quickly to prevent their forwards getting a rest, chasing kicks hard to make sure their forwards have to work harder to get back onside and most importantly working on the ref to ensure that cheating tactics, such as pulling players into rucks, slowly rolling away when offside and jogging slowly back through the line of pass between scrum half and fly half, are pointed out early doors. Big job for Rory Lawson and Kelly Brown on this one.

Agreed funnyexiledScot. I got the feeling that the Scots thought they could bully the Romanians off the ball at the breakdown and impose the game on them. I think they were taken aback by how good they were in the tight exchanges.

They need to do the basics right like you say against Georgia but they must keep their defensive line guessing by attacking with variety and at pace. Tactical kicking (cross kicks, grubber kicks through) and lines of running are key weapons for Scotland to mix up their style of play.

This is the perfect dress rehearsal for Argentina. There´s no secret how they will play against Scotland. Scotland have a great draw in terms of getting their confidence for the game against Argentina. Have a crack at the line when the hard work is done in the forwards and make Argentina sit up and notice and make them think about their tactics. If Scotland put in another dour display, the Argentinians will be smacking their lips and be confident in their tactics. Scotland don´t need to be playing helter skelter rugby but they do need to send out a message of intent to Argentina who will be approaching the game now with Scotland as a do or die game given they have a loss already.

funnyExiledScot wrote:If Rennie has a stormer though, Barclay could be out on his ear for the big knockout game.

+1

I really don't know what's wrong with Barclay at the moment. Part of me thinks the Ref's are not adjudicating the breakdown properly. Barclay got pinged a few times against Romania for standing over a tackled player ripping at the ball in excatly the same way I saw Warburton and Brussow doing for Wales and South Africa respectively.

However leaving that aside, Rennie when he came on looked hungry and aggresive. Barclay is now seriously under pressure from Rennie and I'm starting to think that it is now perhaps starting to get to him. Rennie and Barclay have long been rivals all the way through the age groups and from what I understand Rennie was always considered a better player however he has been really unlucky with injuries. Admitadly it's a very nice dilema to have but Barclay's game is arguably suffering due to the pressure he is under and he may lose his place to a hungrier Rennie.

Reflecting on Georgia and looking ahead to Argentina, England made Argentina look better than they were by playing into their hands. Furthermore England seem to lack a specialist fetcher in the backrow. For those of us who watched Scotland playing argentina in Buenos Aries last year we achived parity in the Scrum and dominated the lineout and breakdown. The Argentina backrow although powerful ball cariers, lack a fetcher. Same can be said about England.

The match on wednesday against Georgia will provide a very tough challenge in the same mould as what Argentina will bring to the table. The result on Wednesday is certainly far from certain but if we can put into practice what we are discussing here, there is strong evidence to suggest it will work against the Pumas too. It certainly did last year.

I'm surprised the Scots pack is struggling so much this season as they have some big, tough hombres in there and forward play is Andy Robinsons forte.

I'd imagine they will be in for another tough stint againts the massive Georgians who are better than Romania.

I wouldn't even be thinking about Argentina or England right now but this is going to be one tough group to get out off and it's all to play for!

Barclay was good against Italy in the warm-up though, and made some key turnovers. I agree that he was pinged harshly a couple of times against Romania, and personally I still think he has the edge over Rennie. That said, I'm a big fan of picking on form, and if Rennie has a stormer against Argentina, to back up a good performance in the warm-ups against Ireland, then he should be picked on that basis.

As you say, if we do manage to play an open match against Argentina, which will be key to our success, then there's a good argument for having Rennie, the better attacking player/ link man, around.

I'm pretty open-minded for the Argentina game to be honest, which is unlike me. I usually have pretty strong views on the 1st XV, but players like Hamilton, Stroksoch, Rennie, Parks, Morrison, NDL and R Lamont could play themselves into that selection if they show up against Georgia.

funnyExiledScot wrote:

I'm pretty open-minded for the Argentina game to be honest, which is unlike me. I usually have pretty strong views on the 1st XV, but players like Hamilton, Stroksoch, Rennie, Parks, Morrison, NDL and R Lamont could play themselves into that selection if they show up against Georgia.

I would agree with this, there is no room for passengers at RWC. If there is somebody in better form then they should be playing unless there is a good tactical reason for not doing so. The second rows are really causing concern, Kellock and Gray are very dynamic and offer a lot in the loose and are very competitive in the lineout. However, the scrum seems to suffer when they are paired together. The best pairing in the last 3 matches has been Hamilton and Gray (against Ireland). They were excellent in the lineout and pack a lot of weight. I am not normally a fan of Hamilton, he flatter to deceive all to often but he looks in good form and that is hard to ignore when the scrum is struggling. Kellock being our captain makes life difficult too, but Gray is a fantastic impact sub if needs must. A year ago, I would never have considered leaving Hines out of the XV never mind the replacements. It would be nice if we had the same degree of competition in the front row and at 10 or 12 sometime soon.

fES,

unfortunately AR does not tend to pick form players - viz. not taking Laidlaw instead of Blair/Lawson/Parks. Cannot understand why Cusiter is not getting a start at SH ? Also thought Pearson the ref on Saturday had a howler esp. re pinging Barclay. Always thought he was one of the better refs at least compared to idiots like Barnes, Clancy, Fitzgibbon and that half iwt who reffed Glasgow v Munster on Friday night. We do need barclay back at his best (i.e. bring his Twickenham 2011 game back).

Anyway it will be good to see Rory Lamont back.

That should of course be 'half-wit who reffed Glasgow v Munster on Friday night'.

Now who is a half iwt ?

After Saturday's performance, I wouldn't put it past Scotland absolutely hammering Georgia who, I would assume, will be over confident.

Our forwards won't get bullied this time and there'll be an extra edge to this team who know that if they perform and win well, they'll be in the team for the two big games coming up.

And for god's sake, play with some aggression this time - sick to death of this flufffy kittens approach at the breakdown.

Tattie Scones RRN wrote:And for god's sake, play with some aggression this time - sick to death of this flufffy kittens approach at the breakdown.

With the strong Glaws contingent of Lawson, Hamilton and Stroks I would wager they will be pretty savage at the breakdown, couple that with Wagga's fearsome clearing out at the breakdown I reckon aggression won't be the problem.

Great article in the scotsman from Ali Kellock about how he remembers Euan Murray against Ireland last year at croker :

"Whenever I speak to Euan about games I always think back to Croke Park last year where we had a scrum with ten minutes to go and he took what seemed like an eternity to get ready for it.

He took his scrum cap off, walked to the side to throw it, walked back, and I could see in his eyes that there was no way he was going to go backwards at that scrum."

That's the sort of attitude we need Euan to bring out against Georgia, not the clown we saw in the 6N smiling as he was brough off against Wales having failed to boss the Welsh pack.

I'm with you Tattie, we can win this game any way we want but we'll need to show 100% commitment.

Tattie Scones RRN wrote:After Saturday's performance, I wouldn't put it past Scotland absolutely hammering Georgia who, I would assume, will be over confident.

Our forwards won't get bullied this time and there'll be an extra edge to this team who know that if they perform and win well, they'll be in the team for the two big games coming up.

And for god's sake, play with some aggression this time - sick to death of this flufffy kittens approach at the breakdown.

Agree Tattie.

I honestly think that Robinson will have given them a rocket after Romania and I do think that we'll take it by about 14 if we can get a couple of scores in early and Desparate starts the board ticking in that way he can.

Really nice interview with Strokosch in the Scotsman where he said that he didn't really understand all this talk of Georgia being big hardmen and that 'we should be bigger and harder, really'. Lovely - will be great to see him daisycutting for a full 80.

I suspect that Moray Low has not trained well or is not fully fit because his lack of a bench place does seem to be directly contradictory to Robinson's stated policy. Fear for him.

First time that Robinson has ever gone with a 5-2 subs bench split. Can't wait.

Particularly love the regularity of seeing the teamsheet without Good Godman anywhere near it.

Quite right - controlled aggression is the name of the game, and we should really aim to test their fitness levels. Parks is pretty good at spinning the ball wide and aiming kicks in behind the line to test them, and I wouldn't be too concerned if we adopt that approach initially without success. Provided they are doing the running and the tackling in the first 50 minutes, we should be fit enough to close out the game thereafter.

I just hope we're not too narrow, and try to beat them down in a arm wrestle, just because we've picked some big forwards. The plan should still be to move the ball, especially with a back row comprising three specialist flankers.