John Barclay's availability to sit on the Glasgow Warriors bench tonight is a significant of indicator to the way Scotland's management is thinking ahead of next weekend's meeting with New Zealand.
Andy Robinson, the national team's head coach, having suggested in midweek that any home-based players he intends to include in his starting XV would be left out of RaboDirect Pro12 action this weekend the decision to return the experienced flanker to club duty makes it pretty clear that Ross Rennie, his rival for the No.7 shirt who has not been made available to Edinburgh, will start against the All Blacks.
Barclay is one of seven Glasgow players – the others are Peter Murchie, Tommy Seymour, Alex Dunbar, Peter Horne, Dougie Hall and Tom Ryder – as well as four Edinburgh players – Lee Jones, Grant Gilchrist, Stuart McInally and Allan Jacobsen – who had been named in Robinson's 34-man training squad but with the aforementioned playing tonight it narrows options significantly.
There remain a few either/ors to resolve but for the most part the team is emerging with a continued heavy reliance on the Edinburgh squad which made history by reaching last season's Heineken Cup semi-final, for all that the club's recent record has been little short of wretched.
Of the others whose services are being withheld, it was most intriguing to hear the name of Henry Pyrgos. He has performed very well at scrum-half for Glasgow Warriors this season but seemed unlikely to be required against New Zealand with Mike Blair and Rory Lawson, two of the six Scotland captains Robinson has picked during his three years in charge, included.
It might seem logical to do the arithmetic and work out that with 11 of the 34 available for the pro sides the remaining 23 will form the squad to take on the All Blacks but it may not be quite that straightforward. Some account must be taken of the need for certain players to get match practice this weekend explaining, for example, Jacobsen's presence on Edinburgh's bench when he has been missing with a hamstring problem recently but looks certain, amid something of a propping crisis for the national team, to be required in some capacity for the opening Test match.
Sean Lamont is, meanwhile, still listed by Glasgow as sidelined because of his facial injury but is expected to be fit for next weekend, while Greig Laidlaw was described yesterday by Michael Bradley, Edinburgh's head coach, as both injured and having been made unavailable by the Scotland management.
How the Scotland team to play the All Blacks is shaping up:
Stuart Hogg (Glasgow); Sean Lamont (Glasgow) or Max Evans (Castres), Nick De Luca, Matt Scott, Tim Visser; Greig Laidlaw (all Edinburgh), Mike Blair (Brive); Ryan Grant (Glasgow), Ross Ford, Geoff Cross (both Edinburgh), Richie Gray (Sale Sharks)/ Jim Hamilton (Gloucester)/Al Kellock (Glasgow
Warriors), Al Strokosch
(Perpignan) or Dave
Denton (Edinburgh),
Ross Rennie
(Edinburgh), Kelly Brown
(Saracens) capt
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