YOU don't have to spend too much time in Vern Cotter's company to conclude that the Scotland coach is a man who knows his own mind.

Yet on Monday, as he unveiled his 33-man squad for the forthcoming November Tests, it became clear that very few others have much insight into what goes on between the New Zealander's ears.

Of course, every coach likes to spring a surprise or two, and Scotland squad announcements have lately acquired a distinctly theatrical edge in that regard. The mind goes back to January 2011 and the mischievous grin worn by Andy Robinson when he named Steven Shingler in his Six Nations squad, a smile that wore off rather quickly when it was subsequently discovered that Shingler wasn't actually qualified to play for Scotland. But Robinson had clearly enjoyed the moment.

Robinson would subsequently, and rather more successfully, perform the same trick when he added Tom Heathcote to his autumn squad in 2012. While a few of us knew a thing or two about the fly-half, then playing for Bath, none had clocked the fact that the fellow had been born in Inverness, possibly because this is the kind of thing people like to keep quiet.

Nor had the London Irish pair Blair Cowan and Kieran Low been touted as contenders before they suddenly popped up in Scott Johnson's squad just over a year ago.

But on Monday Cotter was not minded to spring any rabbits from that almost ever-present hat of his. In fact, the only bunny metaphor that applied was that he had left a few splattered as roadkill in his wake.

No Kelly Brown. No Jim Hamilton. No Max Evans. No Al Kellock. Had Cotter been studying match videos or had he been watching Logan's Run, in which a dystopian 23rd-century society deals with the problems of over-population and scarce resources by simply bumping off anyone who reaches the age of 30?

It was tempting to believe the latter, except that Cotter was not evidently ageist in his last job, when he was looking after the affairs of Clermont Auvergne.

This, remember, is the coach who signed the 35-year-old Nathan Hines, whose team was latterly captained by Aurelien Rougerie and who was happy to build a pack around such other wizened greybeards as Gerhard Vosloo, David Skrela and Julie Bonnaire. Under Cotter, Clermont's Stade Marcel Michelin contained more antiquities than the Louvre.

For what it's worth, I'm not entirely sure that we have grounds for writing the rugby obituaries of any of the players Cotter has left out. Certainly, he is far too canny a character to repeat the crass error of Matt Williams, whose first act as Scotland coach in 2003 was to tell Gregor Townsend, then still just 30, that his Scotland career was over.

The fact that Townsend has since shown himself to be 10 times the coach Williams ever was, particularly in the area of man management, should be a continuing source of deep satisfaction to many who were outraged by that move.

In fact, it is easy to imagine both Brown and Hamilton coming back into the fold before too long. Harder, admittedly, to see the way back for Evans and Kellock, as the competition in their respective positions, wing and lock, has become ferocious in the past few seasons.

Kellock has been one of Scottish rugby's three or four genuinely outstanding figures over the past decade, but his forcefulness as a character and as a leader has not been enough to ensure his place at Glasgow, so he can hardly be surprised to slip off the Scotland radar as well.

Could Cotter be indulging in some gentle mind games with some of those he has left out? With the 2015 Rugby World Cup less than 11 months off, there is no harm whatsoever in providing reminders that Scotland shirts are lent, not given. Moreover, as Brown and Hamilton have a combined total of 120 caps, it is not as if there is much to be learned about either in the November clashes with Argentina, New Zealand and Tonga.

The omission of John Barclay is far harder to fathom. It is not the greatest secret in the game that certain people at Murrayfield were monumentally hacked off when the flanker withdrew (or was withdrawn) from last year's Scotland tour to South Africa in order to have shoulder surgery ahead of his move to Scarlets, but his recent form for the Welsh side has been superb. Barclay has not figured in any Scotland squad this year, but he was immense for his club against Toulon last weekend.

If heads have to be knocked together to get Barclay back in the squad then somebody should get that process started. He is far too good - and, at 28, far too young - a player to be left out.

AND ANOTHER THING . . .

There is no German involvement in the new European rugby competitions, but we should be grateful that they gave us the word 'schadenfreude' anyway.

The restructuring of the Champions and Challenge Cup tournaments was meant to give a boost to English and French sides, but it wasn't exactly obvious over the first weekend.

In all, there were 10 games between Guinness PRO12 and French/English clubs. Seven of those produced wins for the PRO12 outfits. Glasgow's five-try demolition of Bath was the most spectacular, but Munster's gritty 27-26 victory against Sale in the Champions Cup and the Dragons' 38-22 win against Stade Francais in the lower-tier competition stood out as they were both achieved on the road.

For all that coaches blabber on about tactics, conditioning, preparation and what have you, home advantage is still the biggest factor in the game. Nine of the 10 Champions Cup games that took place were won by the home side.

Those figures offer daunting odds to Glasgow as they head for Montpellier. To win there would be a momentous achievement.