If fortune truly favours the brave, it was tempting to conclude yesterday that Scotland could be in real trouble heading into the RBS 6 Nations Championship, but Andy Robinson clearly felt that to give in to public demand would step over the line into recklessness.

"You sound like Warren Gatland now," he chastised the questioner who suggested that the inclusion of Dan Parks meant Scotland would be setting out to play conservatively, drawing comparison with how Wales' head coach had dismissed Scotland before Robinson's side out-played them for 70 minutes in Cardiff in 2010.

"You think about the way we played against Wales two years ago when everybody said we were going to kick the ball. You think about the way that Glasgow played against Toulouse two years ago when they ran Toulouse off the field and won. Dan was the fly-half then," he went on.

"We've got to balance our game in the way that we play. That's the key for us, to be able to play in different ways. It's the carrying of the forwards to the likes of Sean Lamont and Nick De Luca working hard, to the quick feet of Max Evans and Lee Jones, and Dan will be leading that."

For those of us who have the luxury of being able to select teams without having the responsibility of seeing them take the field, it is easy to say that Robinson should have been prepared to let Greig Laidlaw take over where he left off with Edinburgh in the Heineken Cup and run the show.

Mentally, he unquestionably has the toughness to do so, but his capacity to play a rounded game whatever the situation remains very much a work in progress. Having the capacity to change completely Scotland's playing style with the introduction of the very different pairing of Laidlaw and Mike Blair for the old firm that is Parks and Chris Cusiter could yet prove a masterstroke as long as Scotland are in contention in the closing stages.

What cannot be questioned is that, in setting up the game, Parks has both the temperament and the nous to ensure that any advantage Scotland's forwards can gain, whether through set-piece superiority, battling over the gain-line in the loose, or by generating breakdown turnovers is maximised in the first 50 to 60 minutes.

He has also learned to deal with the constant questioning of his involvement and, while appreciative of the running power around him, he is consequently unlikely to make the mistake of trying to force things in order to make points to his critics. "There are going to be times when we're going to have to play the game that I'm perceived to be able to carry out well and, if that's the case, that's how it is," said Parks. "But it's also the case that if the ball's on to be run then, with the players I've got around me, that's going to happen, as well.

"I'm in the team for my strengths and, as Andy always says, we want our players to play to their strengths, but I believe my passing game is reasonably good, so I don't understand why I'm perceived just to play a certain style."

The key factors in deciding how Parks will play the game will be the extent to which the pack can get the upper hand or at least ensure that their opponents do not and whether the five men outside him can sort out which of their abilities is best applied to each situation by way of offering the playmaker the best array of options.

Robinson has picked the best scrummaging front five available to him, noting that while Al Kellock, the World Cup captain, has raised his game of late, so, too, has Jim Hamilton, who is calling the lineouts for Gloucester. That has helped him include Dave Denton in his back row without having to sacrifice a quality the coach prizes in the big hitting of Al Strokosch. That the youngest member of the starting XV is being entrusted with the extra responsibilities of playing at No.8, a position he has hardly occupied for Edinburgh this season, is quite a declaration of trust on Denton's Six Nations debut.

It is also a first start in a championship match for Ross Rennie, the third member of the back row, but he is a much more experienced campaigner having made his first Six Nations appearance as a replacement against Ireland four years ago.

Immediately behind the pack, Cusiter has made a case since the World Cup that was surely – barring a desire to see Laidlaw and Blair as a unit – unarguable even before it was decided that Parks would be playing. However, whether the team can maximise the yield their collective labours should earn will depend on what happens outside the half-backs. To that end, Lamont's directness can be something of a blunt weapon at inside centre, making it all the more vital that Evans takes full advantage of his licence to roam and that Jones, whose appetite for involvement is partly explained by having played scrum-half until his late teens, justifies his rather surprising inclusion.