THE starting XV was highly predictable, but Andy Robinson's one slightly surprising inclusion in his match 23 for Scotland's meeting with New Zealand at Murrayfield on Sunday highlighted the selection inconsistencies that have been one of his biggest issues as an international head coach.
Henry Pyrgos has shown fine form for Glasgow Warriors so far this season, but the justification of the decision to give the 23-year-old his first taste of Test rugby against the toughest opponents of the lot ahead of Rory Lawson, one of the six men to captain Scotland during the coach's three-year reign, seemed exceedingly odd.
Keeping in mind that Lawson most recently led the side when Mike Blair and Chris Cusiter – the two scrum-halves Robinson indecisively made co-captains on first taking over the job – were both available, the explanation given was that the uncapped man features partly to gain experience, while his rivals are older.
"Henry has played well for Glasgow, so he's a young player who's coming through and [his selection] was a little bit about the future as well," Robinson said. "We have three No.9s who are 30 and above so it's about seeing a young No.9 coming through."
It might be unfair to interpret that as suggesting he sees a development element to this particular match, but another curious aspect of Lawson's omission is that only a year ago the Newcastle Falcons scrum-half took over Scotland's captaincy for the middle two games of the disastrous World Cup campaign in New Zealand. That only happened only after Al Kellock, the official World Cup captain, had his authority completely undermined as Robinson first dabbled with what now seems his preferred policy of favouring brawn over brain when picking the heavier Jim Hamilton as Richie Gray's second-row partner.
"Two big guys in the second row," was Robinson's explanation for continuing with that approach yesterday. "We have to get the balance of how we play right to be able to challenge New Zealand in the lineout but also to be able to get our maul going."
With both Gray and Hamilton having had injury problems, it is yet another decision which could threaten to impact upon the confidence of Kellock – who has held Glasgow Warriors together in their own difficult times these past six months or so – when Robinson may yet have to depend on him.
That probably will not be the greatest of the coach's problems, though, since Kellock can always be counted on to give his all. For both club and country, he can be relied upon to do all he can to help lift team morale and support Scotland's latest new captain Kelly Brown, who takes over from Ross Ford, the man who now boasts the unlikely claim of being a Scotland captain who lost the job after three successive wins.
With the Scots preparing to face an All Blacks team that ended their nation's long wait to win the World Cup in the course of their current 17-match unbeaten run, such character will be required as, almost ironically, Robinson seemed to indicate when commenting on the injury worries over Gray and Hamilton. On Gray, he said: "I'm expecting him to train fully in the build-up to the game," he said after reporting that Gray would undergo a fitness test yesterday afternoon – he was later deemed to have passed. "I'm not going to put anybody there who cannot be 100% in terms of their physicality and their attitude.
"With the likes of Jim Hamilton, he's going in to train today with full contact for the first time and we're expecting him to get through."
Elsewhere Geoff Cross, desperately needed in the absence of any other specialist tighthead props, has been recovering from a head injury while Robinson admitted that Greig Laidlaw, the playmaker and main source of points as goal-kicker, was cotton-woolled when his Edinburgh side were being thumped in Belfast on Friday.
"Greig has been doing the contact work," Robinson said of the stand-off's rehabilitation from a shoulder injury. "I didn't want him to play last Friday. I felt the work we've been doing will put him under the kind of pressure he needs to be put under going into this game."
Brown's reintroduction for the first time since the World Cup is one of four changes to the team that took some of the pressure off Robinson with the last-gasp win over Samoa that achieved the minimum requirement of winning all three Tests on the low-level summer tour.
As well as Cross – for the unavailable Euan Murray – and Hamilton, also brought in are Nick De Luca, for the injured Joe Ansbro, and Blair, who started the wins against Australia and Fiji and returns in place of the currently injured Cusiter.
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