Scotland squad for SH tour

First topic message reminder :

Backs - Ansbro, Blair, Brown, Cusiter, De Luca, Evans,Grove, Hogg, Laidlaw, S Lamont, Scott, Visser and Weir.

Forwards - Barclay, Cross, Ford(c), Grant, Gray, Hall, Harley,Kellock, S Lawson, Murray, Rennie, Ryder, Strokosch, Vernon and Welsh

Here's the full monty:

Scotland team (sponsor RBS) to play Australia at Hunter Stadium, Newcastle, New South Wales on Tuesday 5 June, kick-off 7.30pm local time

15 Stuart Hogg (Glasgow Warriors) 4 caps, 1 try, 5 points

14 Joe Ansbro (London Irish) 9 caps, 2 tries, 10 points
13 Nick De Luca (Edinburgh Rugby) 33 caps, 1 try, 5 points
12 Matt Scott (Edinburgh Rugby) 1 cap
11 Sean Lamont (Scarlets) 65 caps, 8 tries, 40 points

10 Greig Laidlaw (Edinburgh Rugby) 7 caps, 1 try, 2 conversions, 8 penalties, 33 points
9 Mike Blair (Edinburgh Rugby) 80 caps, 7 tries, 35 points

1 Ryan Grant (Glasgow Warriors) new cap
2 Ross Ford (Edinburgh Rugby) CAPTAIN 58 caps, 2 tries, 10 points
3 Euan Murray (Newcastle Falcons) 44 caps, 2 tries, 10 points
4 Alastair Kellock (Glasgow Warriors) 41 caps, 1 try, 5 points
5 Richie Gray (Glasgow Warriors) 21 caps, 1 try, 5 points
6 Alasdair Strokosch (Gloucester) 25 caps, 1 try, 5 points
7 Ross Rennie (Edinburgh Rugby) 16 caps
8 John Barclay (Glasgow Warriors) 37 caps, 2 tries, 10 points

Substitutes

16 Scott Lawson (Gloucester) 32 caps, 2 tries, 10 points
17 Jon Welsh (Glasgow Warriors) 1 cap
18 Tom Ryder (Glasgow Warriors) uncapped
19 Richie Vernon (Sale Sharks) 18 caps
20 Chris Cusiter (Glasgow Warriors) 59 caps, 3 tries, 15 points
21 Duncan Weir (Glasgow Warriors) 1 cap, 1 conversion, 2 points
22 Tom Brown (Edinburgh Rugby) uncapped

Referee: Jaco Peyper (South Africa). Assistant referees: Craig Joubert (South Africa) and Keith Brown (New Zealand). TMO: Vinny Munro (New Zealand).


Murray over Cross suggests that Cross's scrummaging in training has been awful, Barclay preferred over Vernon, NDL given another chance

Cross' scrummaging did go backwards a bit towards the end of the season, but Murray has been crap in a Scotland shirt since before the world cup.

I think it's fair to say Australia won't be quaking in their boots at that pack, which is a real shame considering the kind of pack we can put out if everyone is fit.

Look how bad our try scoring stats are in the backs!

Pretty pleased with that selection, pack looks fairly decent and will be more than able to match the wallabies pack who will look to play a fast paced game. Our back row will match theirs and should get the upper hand at turnovers and scavaging.
Cross's scrummaging has been pretty poor recently where as Murray has been getting into form at newcastle so probably deserves the start.
The backs might not have the greatest try scoring stats but think there will be a few tries coming from them, should see plenty of wide ball who shouldn't fear taking on the wallabies.
Glad to see Tom Brown on the bench and hopefully will get on at some point, he is going to be a very exciting player.

Well back ashore and able to comment!

tarting with the backs, looks ok. Glad to see Ansbro getting a shot and NDL getting to play at 13 with Scott at 12, time to deliver Nick or time to disappear from the test match arena.

Barclay at 8 worries me more than any other selection. I think had Denton been available to do the ball carrying we could have expected Harley at 6 but Stroks must be there to give some added ball carrying ability in the tight.

All in all it looks like the weakest set of Forwards I have seen us play for a long time and one of the best sets of backs I have seen for an even longer time......

Now do I decide to get up and watch this at stupid o'clock in the morning?

RDW_Scotland wrote:Cross' scrummaging did go backwards a bit towards the end of the season, but Murray has been crap in a Scotland shirt since before the world cup.

I think it's fair to say Australia won't be quaking in their boots at that pack, which is a real shame considering the kind of pack we can put out if everyone is fit.

Look how bad our try scoring stats are in the backs!

Murray was looking good at the end of the season in the couple of games I saw, I actually think its not too much doom and gloom for Scotland. The scottish front five are more than capable of causing Australia some trouble as they did against every side in the 6 Nations, I have a feeling Rennie is going to give Pocock(if he is selected for tues) a shock.

In the backs I worry a bit about the midfield defence but the arrival of Scott Johnson will make a difference to your backs and he will make an immediate impact. Whatever I think of him as a head coach as an attack specialist he is amongst the best around.

Ive said right from the time these fixtures were announced taht if the Ozzies are not foccussed or have one eye on the game against wales and play a second string that they could get burnt and Im standing by that. Part of me wonders if Dingo is going to get to the quad nations.

Radge - it's on at 10:30am on Tuesday, Sky Sports 1. Even I can haul myself out of bed for that sort or time!

Backs are absolutely spot on.

Surprised that Grant is ahead of Welsh, and that one of Harley or Vernon isn't starting. Lots of ball carrying for Strokosch to do. The back row is extremely lightweight, but on the plus side in a fast paced game we should be completing hard at the breakdown, which should hopefully choke off some quick ball to those Aussie backs.

Time to see what Matt Scott is made of as an international 12, and time for NDL to take his club form into the international jersey. No excuses, he's surrounded by his club colleagues and must deliver.

Looking forward to it.

RDW_Scotland wrote:Look how bad our try scoring stats currently are in the backs!

Being an optimist (especially when Scotland are involved) I thought i'd fix that there for you RDW

Given the usual biatchfest that, these threads tend to descend into after an Andy Robinson Selection It's A Knock Out, there's a lot that's good about this selection.

- Delighted to see Joe on the wing and for all that I make fun of Schlong, we need his go forward

- Lovely to see Welsh on the bench, presumably covering both sides

- Barclay at 8 was inevitable and I have no problem with another fetcher on the park, especially with Samo and Pocock around

FES I didn't know the game was on at that time, that should be workable to be honest.

Back row is certainly not going to be dominating much play, they will be very mobile though and our backs will hopefully throw it about and open the game up. No excuse for not backing up the players who break the gain line with that back row.

Johnnie Beattie looking good for the Baa Baa's too.

Pretty pleased with the team which makes a nice change, although not totally convinced by Murray, Strokosh and Barclay. With MacVisser not eligbile til the next game, the backs are spot on... roll on Tuesday.

I'm not quite sure what Queenie intended I use the extra holiday for but a trip to the pub for the game is the most important thing in my plans for the day.

Has anyone got any suggestions for a pub in Edinburgh to watch the game which will definitely be open on a weekday morning? I've headed to the Golf Tavern to watch the last couple of away games but it doesn't open til 12. Somewhere that serves up a cooked breakfast would be an added bonus but not a necessity!

Is the Wallabies team up yet?

gets announced on sunday, not sure at what time though.

Wallabies team will be announced around 2am tonight.

Is anyone watching Baa Baas? Richie Rhys looking pretty good (Fellow Edinburgh fans) and Johnnie Beattie has had a brilliant game! Shame he isn't on the tour really with Denton injured.

agree Johnnie Beattie had an excellent game, good ball carries, some good hits and some really good passes, looked really refreshed and had a smile on his face.
Richie Rees looked pretty handy too, not seen too much of him and was a little wary of his signing but looked a handful for the welsh.

Yeah he made one or two errors but they were more to do with over eagerness i think. He was very quick in and around the rucks which is perfect for Edinburgh. He'll hopefully be very good for Edinburgh when the 6N is on. Good to give Blair some more competition too!

Scottish Optimist wrote:Pretty pleased with the team which makes a nice change, although not totally convinced by Murray, Strokosh and Barclay. With MacVisser not eligbile til the next game, the backs are spot on... roll on Tuesday.

I'm not quite sure what Queenie intended I use the extra holiday for but a trip to the pub for the game is the most important thing in my plans for the day.

Has anyone got any suggestions for a pub in Edinburgh to watch the game which will definitely be open on a weekday morning? I've headed to the Golf Tavern to watch the last couple of away games but it doesn't open til 12. Somewhere that serves up a cooked breakfast would be an added bonus but not a necessity!

I'll be in the Globe on Niddry St just off the mile, backpackers pub opens ridiculously early and should have a few Aussies which should make for a good atmosphere. Watched a few RWC games there and was always good fun. If you want brekkie first try the Bank Hotel on the corner, not cheap but OK.

Cheers, JS

The Murrayfield hotel will probably be open and teuchters and berts bar are good rugby pubs

Doubt they'll open til 11 tho RDW. Murrayfield may be open earlier with hotel licence.

Biddy's and 3 Sisters will be open as well, but meh.

Has there been an extension of opening hours for the jubilee day at all?

Embra's licencing board, doubt it.

It's all looking good for next year now:
Our youngsters will have had a year at the top level and will strengthen accordingly over the summer
Kelly Brown will be back
Beattie looks to be on his way back
Cusiter was improving
Visser will be there
Jackson will have had a summer off
Mark Bennett may get a few games for Clermont's first team (he looked quality amongst players 2-4 years older than him in that Espoirs video)
No Morrison or Parks
New coaches
all we need now is for Barclay to come back to his best and we'll have two or three quality players in each position.

15. Hogg, Brown, Ramont
14. Jones, Lamont
13. De Luca, Ansbro, Bennett?
12. Scott, Dunbar
11. Visser, Evans
10. Weir, Laidlaw, Jackson
9. Blair, Cusiter
8. Denton, Beattie, Vernon, MacInally
7. Rennie, Barclay, Fusaro
6. Brown, Harley, Strockosh
5. Hamilton, Gilchrist, McKenzie
4. Gray, Kellock
3. Cross, Murray
2. Ford, Lawson, MacArthur
1. Grant, Welsh, Jacobsen

Apart from the props that looks very strong. Hopefully Johnson and Taylor can get the best out of them. Could it be our year?

Some notable omissions there too you've not mentioned- cairnsy, grove, Tom Ryder and Ryan Wilson!

justified sinner wrote:

I'll be in the Globe on Niddry St just off the mile, backpackers pub opens ridiculously early and should have a few Aussies which should make for a good atmosphere. Watched a few RWC games there and was always good fun. If you want brekkie first try the Bank Hotel on the corner, not cheap but OK.

Cheers, JS [/quote]

Thanks for the tip - had thought about Bank Hotel but I'll def. check out The Globe.

RDW_Scotland wrote:The Murrayfield hotel will probably be open and teuchters and berts bar are good rugby pubs

Thanks for the suggestions. The Murrayfield's a good shout but maybe too much of a trek across edinburgh for me when the kick off is early enough as it is!

Unfortunately most of the obvious good rugby pubs like Teuchters ain't open til 11 or even 12.

Cheers

They might open early for the game? Give them.a call.

RDW_Scotland wrote:They might open early for the game? Give them.a call.

That's true!

RDW_Scotland wrote:Some notable omissions there too you've not mentioned- cairnsy, grove, Tom Ryder and Ryan Wilson!

Fair enough I completely forgot about them. I suppose Roddy Grant's a decent player too, the problem is that in some areas like the back row we're saturated with top players of all ages and in others like prop our players probably wouldn't make the first team of any top14, Aviva or Rabo teams. Our depth is starting to look good and without wanting to go into too much detail, a fair few Scots are Scots have just gone into academies elsewhere after being dropped from the national academy as well as players like Ian Nimmo who I know very little about but he's just signed for the Dragons, we could have a third team if were solely on player depth that could compete and perhaps even a fourth (perhaps I'm getting a little carried away).

Edinburgh supporters club on Twitter say they're going to the Murrayfield

I don't know if anyone is watching Castres vs Toulouse just now, but Max Evans is looking good, just ran from his own 22 broke and wrong footed a couple of tackles and then went over the try line and somehow managed not to score! Can't quite believe it.

Wonder if AR is watching the game.

I think once more the team will disappoint and will continue to do so until Robinson goes. he simply is not able to prepare them properly.

123456789 wrote:It's all looking good for next year now:
Our youngsters will have had a year at the top level and will strengthen accordingly over the summer
Kelly Brown will be back
Beattie looks to be on his way back
Cusiter was improving
Visser will be there
Jackson will have had a summer off
Mark Bennett may get a few games for Clermont's first team (he looked quality amongst players 2-4 years older than him in that Espoirs video)
No Morrison or Parks
New coaches
all we need now is for Barclay to come back to his best and we'll have two or three quality players in each position.

15. Hogg, Brown, Ramont
14. Jones, Lamont
13. De Luca, Ansbro, Bennett?
12. Scott, Dunbar
11. Visser, Evans
10. Weir, Laidlaw, Jackson
9. Blair, Cusiter
8. Denton, Beattie, Vernon, MacInally
7. Rennie, Barclay, Fusaro
6. Brown, Harley, Strockosh
5. Hamilton, Gilchrist, McKenzie
4. Gray, Kellock
3. Cross, Murray
2. Ford, Lawson, MacArthur
1. Grant, Welsh, Jacobsen

Apart from the props that looks very strong. Hopefully Johnson and Taylor can get the best out of them. Could it be our year?

Do you have a link for the clermont espoirs video, wouldn't mind seeing that.

I think it's somewhere on the original summer tour thread. It was certainly on this site.

Majestic83 wrote:

Do you have a link for the clermont espoirs video, wouldn't mind seeing that.

There you go:

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xqyto1_resume-asm-usap-espoirs-finale-du-championnat-de-france-2011-2012_sport?search_algo=1

Manky-Flanker wrote:

Majestic83 wrote:

Do you have a link for the clermont espoirs video, wouldn't mind seeing that.

There you go:

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xqyto1_resume-asm-usap-espoirs-finale-du-championnat-de-france-2011-2012_sport?search_algo=1

perfect, cheers for that.

Well they're definitely taking us seriously!

Wallabies team to play Scotland:

15. Luke Morahan (Queensland Reds) 14. Joe Tomane (Brumbies) 13. Anthony Fainga’a (Queensland Reds) 12. Mike Harris (Queensland Reds) 11. Digby Ioane (Queensland Reds) 10. Berrick Barnes (NSW Waratahs) 9. Will Genia (Queensland Reds) 8. Scott Higginbotham (Queensland Reds) 7. David Pocock (captain, Western Force) 6. Dave Dennis (NSW Waratahs) 5. Nathan Sharpe (Western Force) 4. Sitaleki Timani (NSW Waratahs) 3. Dan Palmer (Brumbies) 2. Stephen Moore (Brumbies) 1. James Slipper (Queensland Reds)

Run on Reserves:

16. Saia Fainga’a (Queensland Reds) 17. Ben Alexander (Brumbies) 18. Rob Simmons (Queensland Reds) 19. Michael Hooper (Brumbies) 20. Nick Phipps (Melbourne Rebels) 21. Pat McCabe (Brumbies) 22. Adam Ashley Cooper (NSW Waratahs)


We're screwed. Baws.

I don't know, a lot of aussie who have been commenting on the fox sports australia website are slating Robbie Deans for this selection and saying it is one of the worst in years. It's the backs they are really unhappy with especially Berrick Barns at 10 who has been in awful form this year.
On paper the names look good for the aussies but the form of some of the players is pretty questionable.

Suppose maybe I shouldn't despair - they have got class players in there but I'm not up with their form.

Scotland are very good at making players out of form suddenly find it again though!

I really wish we had Tim visser for this one.

Were there really any options other than Barnes at 10?

Also - really looking forward to seeing Rennie dominate pocock!

Yeah there were a few options, Cooper is fit and playing well, Ben Lucas has played well at 10 for the reds too. Those 2 are the one the aussies seem to be crying out for, pretty much anyone apart from Barns. Just watched the highlights of this weekend Waratahs game and never seen such a poor performance from a team in a while. Looked totally uninterested and no invention in attack. All Barns did was kick the ball or try to attempt passes that put his outside backs in trouble. Didn't seem to want to take contact much either.
The stadium looked even more empty and less atmosphere than what murrayfield does at an edinburgh game.

Yeah watched that too - the handling was shocking!

The tahs are an absolute basket case this year. They're breaking all the wrong records like most losses in a season, most consecutive losses, most losses at home etc. What's worse is the manner in which they're playing. No one wants to fork out their hard earned to watch aimless kicking which results in record losses.

They just look as if they can't be bothered playing and there seems to be no team spirit at the Waratahs just now, it is getting pretty embarrassing for them. I know there has been chat that some of the problems with the team spirit are with Rocky Elsom being there.
Surprised to see as many Waratahs in the aussie squad as there are for the tests against Scotland and Wales.

Majestic/Full Credit - if you're going to play the Reds backline, then surely Mike Harris should have been one of the first names down on the sheet? He's a 'proper' 10 with a great skillset and a very reliable goalkicker. Don't understand why he isn't being talked about more for this game or why the feck you would put Barnes in there, who cannot exactly be riding high on confidence with a bl00dy awful Tahs side at the moment.

The waratahs need a good cleanout like the reds had a few years ago. They need a new board, new coaching staff, and some new young players that are prepared to have a go instead of paying a fortune for players who offer little. Like Rocky being paid $700k a year to sit on the pine or Pretorius who was a big signing but often isn't even selected.

Saving harris for wales?

It's meant to be cold and raining on Tuesday - who will that help? It's a shame cause we've actually got an exciting backline!

George Carlin wrote:Majestic/Full Credit - if you're going to play the Reds backline, then surely Mike Harris should have been one of the first names down on the sheet? He's a 'proper' 10 with a great skillset and a very reliable goalkicker. Don't understand why he isn't being talked about more for this game or why the feck you would put Barnes in there, who cannot exactly be riding high on confidence with a bl00dy awful Tahs side at the moment.

Yeah Harris would have been a far better selection at 10 for Australia, been playing a lot at 12 for the reds but is normally a 10, kicking well at goal this season which again Barnes hasn't been doing much off due to McKibbin kicking. Some good players in the Australian team but it doesn't fill me with dread and I am fairly confident we will match them.

Full Credit wrote:The waratahs need a good cleanout like the reds had a few years ago. They need a new board, new coaching staff, and some new young players that are prepared to have a go instead of paying a fortune for players who offer little. Like Rocky being paid $700k a year to sit on the pine or Pretorius who was a big signing but often isn't even selected.

Is Rocky off contract after the super 15? Can't see any team in oz wanting to sign him up after only playing a handful of games in the last 2 seasons. Sydney has the best club system in Australia with a pretty good standard so surely there must be some good players that are more worthy than some of the guys playing for the Tahs just now.

Take it rocky hasn't been playing well?

He hasn't been playing full stop. Think he has managed about 2 games at most this season, seems to be on the injury list all the time though from what i've heard from guys out there, there is a bit of unrest in the squad towards him. He's not a team man and better players than him now like Dave Dennis.

Maj, it's looking like Rocky will head off overseas next year. The tahs would have the most playing stocks to choose from in Australia and I'm sure are the best financed so they don't really have any excuses. I don't know what the problem is but there just doesn't seem to be much pride in their performance lately.