Robinson steps up the power for tour finale

Wednesday 20 June 2012

DESPITE a 100% record on tour so far, Andy Robinson, the Scotland coach, has decided to change his winning team with the aim of bringing in a more robust and physical approach to counter the big-hitting Samoans in the tour finale on Saturday.

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Stuart McAllister

One change had been inevitable from the moment Robinson announced that John Barclay was being allowed to leave the tour to prepare for his wedding, which will take place only seven days after the team play in the Pacific Island. As expected, it opens the way for Richie Vernon to make another attempt to secure the No.8 berth as his own.

The two changes were both hinted at by replacements sent on early in the final quarter against Fiji, with Chris Cusiter coming in for Mike Blair at scrum-half and Sean Lamont taking over from Max Evans on the wing. In both cases, the player left out is expected to feature on the bench, but Robinson will not be naming that until later today.Alasdair Strokosch and Euan Murray are both named in the team and expected to play, though they are also both subject to late fitness tests, probably on Friday, to establish that they have shaken off the calf strain and twisted knee, respectively, that forced them to take only a peripheral part in training yesterday. Since it is the final match of the trip, he is happy to to leave the decision as late as possible on two players who have rediscovered their best form.Robinson made no secret of the fact that Lamont is there purely to counter the Samoan tackling and to add some extra power to the Scottish ball-carrying. "We will need to establish some real go-forward with the big hitters in the Samoan team. We think Sean will give us that," the coach explained.What is rather less easy to explain is the decision to make yet another unforced change at half-back. For the past year, Robinson has been unable to settle on his best partnership in this key role. Cusiter, Blair and Rory Lawson have all had spells in and out of the team at scrum-half, while Dan Parks (now retired), Ruaridh Jackson and now Greig Laidlaw have been handed the starting role at fly-half. That is nine potential combinations – without counting Duncan Weir, who has had a couple of runs off the bench – and pretty well all of them have been tried."Chris Cusiter has had a really good impact off the bench, so we have given him a start in the game," said Robinson. "He has done well and the competition between the two players has been really close. They are both playing good rugby at the moment."Cusiter has certainly lifted the tempo when he has come on, with some telling defence in Australia and generally speeding things up when he came on against Fiji, though it was also from his box kick that the Islanders ran back for the try that brought them to within two points of overhauling Scotland before the tourists broke clear in the final 10 minutes.The rest of the team, to all intents and purposes, picked itself. There was no possibility that Robinson would tinker with the rest of the pack, while Laidlaw again proved himself to be a match-winner when he collected 22 points against Fiji, to add to the nine that were enough to win the game in Australia, and at the moment is undroppable.Nor is there any reason to change the midfield, who did such an effective job of creating space on the left wing for Tim Visser, whose two tries got his international career off to a perfect start. Apart from the scores, he had a three or four dangerous breaks, one of which indirectly led to the opening try for Laidlaw, and he looked every inch an international player.The main challenge for Robinson and his team is to secure the breakdown. That is where Samoa took the Scots on in Aberdeen two years ago and certainly did enough to earn the draw that was snatched from them with Jackson's last-minute penalty. At stake is ninth spot in the IRB rankings, and the chance for the winner to challenge for that all-important top-eight seeding when the rankings are used as the basis for the Rugby World Cup draw in December.

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Robinson steps up the power for tour finale

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