As he makes his Test debut on
Saturday, Alan MacDonald will line up alongside one of his lifelong friends in Ben Cairns after both were called into the Scotland team to face Argentina at Murrayfield.

Their inclusion, along with that of Thom Evans, added up to a surprising number of changes to the side that claimed a historic win over Australia last weekend.

All three were, though, part of the Scotland A team that swept Tonga aside the previous evening and Andy Robinson, the head coach, has made clear his determination to encourage competition for places.

Curiously, Cairns and Evans both made their Test debuts against these same opponents in the first Test of Scotland’s summer tour of Argentina last year, but for their fellow 24-year-old, it has been a longer wait. Yet MacDonald was arguably the first of them to make a major impact in senior Scottish rugby when he first appeared for Edinburgh in a Celtic League match five years ago.

Todd Blackadder was still at the club at that time and the former All Black captain marked the flanker out as a top-class prospect. However, he was overtaken by the emerging John Barclay and, at his own club, Ross Rennie, both of whom were capped two seasons ago.

MacDonald re-established himself in the Edinburgh side under Robinson last season, was among the top performers at the IRB Nations Cup in June and has been consistently excellent at club level again this year, making what the national coach clearly sees as a challenge that cannot be ignored. That Cairns has also been recalled, as both players said yesterday, only adds to what will already be an emotional occasion.

“We first played together in primary three at Royal High minis, all the way since then through the same high school team and we played together at Stew-Mel midis for a couple of years, then Royal High Colts for a year, as well as the [representative] age groups together,” said MacDonald.

“It’s quite a nice thing. Obviously I know Ben’s game really well, so it’s quite comforting that way that there’s someone who I can link up with having played with for so long, which not a lot of people have. So it will be a special moment.”

Cairns was clearly delighted that his close friend has now joined him as a senior Scotland cap. “It’s brilliant,” said the centre. “I think we’ve played together for about 17 years, all the way through from minis. We’re the same age, are really good mates off the field and we’ve come all the way through together. It’s going to be a really special occasion and I’m sure that we’ll have a lot of our school-mates that we still keep in contact with and still go out together with at the game on Saturday.

“This is just credit to the way Alan’s played for Edinburgh for the last two years and definitely the last year when he’s been awesome.”

MacDonald readily admitted he had not expected the call, such had been Barclay’s performances against Fiji and Australia. “I was surprised this morning when Andy called me out. It’s been a while for myself working towards it, but I’m delighted now,” he said.

Cairns, too, expressed surprise, but made the crucial point that it is when a team is winning that there is most satisfaction to be taken from earning a place. “I did all I could do to influence selection on Friday night,” he said.Asked if he had suffered mixed feelings when watching the performances of Alex Grove, who was only given his debut in the No.13 jersey against Fiji because Cairns had suffered a knee injury two weeks before that match, he offered a better way of looking at it.

“I know what you mean, but you don’t want to get the jersey because there’s nobody else,” he said. “It’s great to have that competition for the place and that’s the way it should be when you are playing for your country. It shouldn’t be any other way and Alex has taken his chance. I played with him in Romania when he was 12 and I was 13 at the Nations Cup and we combined well, so I’m really excited to be playing alongside him this week.”

That is exactly what the management has been desperate to generate in every position. Consider, then, that Max Evans, yet another contender for the No.13 jersey, was Scotland’s player of last season before suffering the knee injuries that have curtailed his involvement this season and it is clear that the coaches’ options are improving all the time.

Stand-off apart, that level of competition is being generated throughout the team, as demonstrated at scrum-half, where Mike Blair’s ankle injury has spared them an agonised decision.

Having named Blair as one of the squad’s co-captains along with Chris Cusiter who, should he pass all the tests on his head injury, will lead the team again on Saturday, it would have been incredibly difficult to leave him out if he was fully fit. Yet, including him would have meant omitting Rory Lawson who, after replacing Cusiter midway through the first half, showed that it is by no means a two-horse race for the No.9 jersey.

Furthermore, that Barclay and Morrison were named by Robinson as being part of the squad’s leadership group before this campaign, yet it has been decided that they can afford to go into this match without either of them, even in the match 22, is a measure of the depth of quality available.