SCOTLAND's 26-13 victory against Japan on Saturday came at a price, with Alasdair Dickinson being ruled out of the second Test by injury and four others raising varying levels of doubt about their availability for that match.
Gordon Reid, the Glasgow Warriors prop, has been called up to replace Dickinson, who was taken off in the second minute with a hamstring problem. Dickinson was replaced at loosehead by his Edinburgh team-mate Rory Sutherland, who is expected to be in the starting line-up this weekend, thus restricting Reid to bench duty.
The other injuries seem a bit less serious, and in any case for some of them there is no need to call up replacements, since there is already cover within the squad. The most obvious of those is Duncan Taylor, the Saracens centre, who also picked up a hamstring problem. "We have cover in the midfield with Sean [Lamont] and Huw Jones," Scotland coach Cotter pointed out. "Huw could have played if he had to."
In fact, there is no guarantee Taylor will start even if he does recover, since Cotter and his colleagues want to have a look at Jones in a Test match before he heads back to South Africa, where he has been among the top players with the Stormers Super Rugby franchise in Cape Town. Jones joined the squad with a toe problem, and though it was better by last week, he had not trained much with the squad and was not risked. This will be Cotter's last chance until the Autumn, however, to see if Jones can add something to the reasonably healthy Scotland resources in midfield.
Two of the other injuries are in the back row, with John Barclay and Ryan Wilson both getting medical treatment, Barclay on his shoulder, Wilson on his knee. Should either be ruled out, David Denton could move up into the starting 15, and Josh Strauss is already with the party as cover.
The big problem would be if Willem Nel's knee did not recover, since even with Reid on his way, there is a bare minimum of cover on the propping front. Nel seemed confident immediately after the game that he would recover, and the fact that nobody has been sent for as cover suggests the medical staff think he was right.
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