Scotland�s management got their due reward for their team selection on Saturday, albeit the same might unfortunately be said of the previous two matches.

Scotland's management got their due reward for their team selection on Saturday, albeit the same might unfortunately be said of the previous two matches.

Bad starts have characterised Scottish campaigns since this competition became a six-team event in 2000. More recently, selectorial mistakes have also become a recurring theme.Who could forget the blunders made by Matt Williams on his first game in charge in 2004 when, among other things, he selected Andy Henderson on the wing, leaving the big centre floundering out of position?

Frank Hadden's management teams have also been culpable. A year ago there was widespread bemusement when Dave Callam was selected ahead of his then club captain Ally Hogg at No.8, the position in which Hogg was playing regularly for Edinburgh. Injury has contributed to his absence but Callam has not played for Scotland since that thumping defeat by France.

Then, last summer, with caretaker assistants in place, Hadden made the decision to leave John Barclay, the best player in Scotland throughout the 2007/08 season, out of the side for the first Test in Argentina. It was lost. With Barclay reintroduced, the second Test was won.

The first two matches of this campaign saw another new selectorial group go against the flow of popular opinion in a number of choices, something that only looks smart if the team wins.

Leaving out the Evans brothers to play safe defensively did not exactly pay off as four tries were conceded against Wales. Placing one back-row forward in the second row while having another offering cover for that department in case of injury backfired horribly.

Hogg, this time, was the subject of another eccentric decision when he was included at blindside flanker ahead of a string of players who have, unlike him, been performing there regularly.

For the trip to France, the decision to select Ally Dickinson, these days a specialist loosehead prop, on the other side of the scrum was also an accident waiting to happen.

Admittedly, the management have not been helped by key injuries, but if they respond to problems in unorthodox fashion, then lose, they must live with criticism. On Saturday, they were pretty much entirely in line with conventional thinking and, lo and behold, with setpiece specialists calling the shots and genuine attacking threat out wide, they got the right result.

One decision for which the management should be commended is in sticking with Simon Danielli, after he endured what could best be described as a mixed experience in Paris.

When he was brought in ahead of the out-of-form Sean Lamont for that trip to France it seemed debatable, given that Chris Paterson had performed so well with ball in hand against Wales.

Paterson again looked sprightly when he came on at the Stade de France, so it seemed there was even more justification for the recall to the starting line-up of the man with the golden boot. Instead, they showed faith in Danielli, who repaid them by scoring the vital first try, almost scoring another and putting in a couple of crucial tackles. This was a real reminder of why his inclusion generated such excitement at the 2003 World Cup when Scotland were desperately looking for the finishing power that had been absent for years.

Injury to Allan Jacobsen, a real blow with the feisty wee prop in his best form, means change is again certain. There also remains the possibility of Jim Hamilton (who seems to have a decent chance of being available) or Nathan Hines (though he is now extremely unlikely to feature in this championship after eight weeks on the sidelines) returning to the fray for next week's visit of Ireland.

Ally Dickinson ought to get the chance he craves to start in his preferred position, but the selectors have a really tough call to make if they are choosing two second rows from Jason White and Al Kellock, who did well on Saturday, plus Hamilton and, maybe, Hines.

Furthermore, if Scotland do have two specialist locks of genuine quality available then they also have to consider whether White should revert to his more familiar role at blindside flanker where Al Strokosch has been performing well.

An extra dimension to that is the captaincy.

White has remained hugely influential since being replaced as captain by Mike Blair a year ago and would be a strong contender to reclaim the job should the scrum-half be left out of the starting XV.

Throughout 2008 that could not have seemed further from being a possibility with Blair's form rightly earning him a nomination for the World Player of the Year award. However, in this campaign it has dipped.

There was a suggestion after Saturday's match that a knock suffered in the team run ahead of it had been a factor in that, but it was in his decision-making that he looked uncharacteristically hesitant. By contrast Chris Cusiter has looked extremely sharp when taking the field and is making a serious challenge to reclaim the No.9 shirt.

Of course Blair has also had the tougher job up against fresh opponents, whereas Cusiter has had the chance to catch the eye once the game has started to break up slightly, so it is a tough call.

That is the good news for Hadden and his management. The calls they are now being asked to make seem a lot less clear-cut than those most of us felt they got wrong in the first two matches.