SCOTLAND'S Rugby World Cup training has hardly started and already the team management have had to call up reinforcements after confirming that Duncan Taylor, the Saracens centre, and Tim Swinson, the Glasgow lock, need surgery on injuries they had picked up before the end of the season.

Neither has been ruled out of the World Cup, but since they are expected to take three months to recover from the operations they would have to win selection without having played in any of the warm-up games, which would be a gamble by Vern Cotter and his fellow coaches.

The problems represent late chances for the Edinburgh pair Dougie Fife, the wing, and Ben Toolis, the lock, who had been surprise omissions from the original squad. Fife had been in demand during the RBS Six Nations Championship, starting two matches and scoring in the other when he got an early call from the bench.

Despite that, he was left out of the original squad, with uncapped wings Damien Hoyland and Rory Hughes picked ahead of him. Now he has the chance to re-establish his credentials and since he had played plenty of rugby at centre as well as wing may be a more natural replacement if Taylor fails to make it.

Toolis was less of a surprise when he failed to make the original squad, having established himself in the Edinburgh team only at Christmas. Now that he is there, there are opportunities for him with only four specialist locks left as competition.