SEVERAL years ago, with Sir Clive Woodward in charge of the British Lions team to tour New Zealand, no Scots players were selected for any of the three test matches

It was difficult not to experience a degree of schadenfreude at the whitewash inflicted on the "British" Lions then.

More recently, with a sense of deja vu, we received the announcement that Warren Gatland had included a mere two Scots in a 41-strong squad to tour New Zealand this summer, despite our decisive victories over Wales and Ireland.

Now we hear that plans are afoot to merge the Scottish Rugby Sevens team into a GB squad. Scotland has just won the London Sevens Tournament for the second year in a row, beating New Zealand and England. It is inevitable that the new scheme will see Scotland's players overlooked yet again.

After 300 years of being sidelined I suppose we should be getting used to it by now.

James Stevenson,

Drummond Avenue, Auchterarder.