Squad announcement demonstrates real problems for Robinson

Since Seymour is the only one of the newcomers to play in the back three, the same department as Sean Maitland, the New Zealand Under-20 cap who is Glasgow Warriors' new signing from Canterbury Crusaders, it invited a question.

Had Maitland been included in the squad right up until the last minute, then withdrawn either because of fears of another Brendan Laney controversy or of a repetition of last season's debacle when Steve Shingler was named in a Scotland squad but was actually ineligible, having played under-20 rugby for another country?

Robinson was adamant that was not so and one of the Scottish Rugby Union's battalion of press officers threw herself in front of the head coach to take the bullet, explaining that it had been her error. Robinson's hope must be that everyone else working under him will be as willing to put themselves in the line of fire in the coming weeks because yesterday's squad announcement demonstrated real problems.

No fewer than 13 contenders for places – Joe Ansbro, Ben Cairns, Chris Cusiter, Ally Dickinson, Ed Kalman, Rory Lamont, Stevie Lawrie, Moray Low, Pat MacArthur, Graeme Morrison, Nikki Walker, Duncan Weir and Jon Welsh – were listed as "not considered due to injury". Several others – Mike Blair, Geoff Cross, Max Evans, Richie Gray, Jim Hamilton, Allan Jacobsen, Greig Laidlaw and Tim Visser – have, or have had, injury issues lately.

So much so that, setting aside the sort of jingoistic tripe that was trotted out when Laney was called up in similar circumstances 11 years ago, Maitland's quality is such that he would surely have come directly into contention had he not been sidelined for the past two months with a hand injury.

It is, of course, never easy against New Zealand and Robinson's description of what was required might have been uttered by any of those leading Scotland into battle over the past 107 years that have produced 28 failed attempts to beat these opponents.

"We will really tough it out and that is going to be the case for the whole pack, the whole team really," he said. "It has got to be a physical performance from our side. We have to show application at the tackle contest and also in defence if we are to get anything out of the New Zealand game."

He did, though, hint at the paucity of resources in sideways fashion when commenting upon the one area of the pitch in which he has genuine strength in depth. "If you look at our back row, we have some outstanding back-row players. As well as Ally Hogg, you have Richie Vernon, who has started to play well for Sale; Johnnie Beattie, I watched his game last weekend and he is starting to move forward in what he is doing and we are looking for that consistency from him," said Robinson. None of those three features in the squad

"Stuart McInally has been outstanding for Edinburgh in his performances; you know how much I like the two sevens [John Barclay and Ross Rennie] who are there; Strokosch was man of the tour [of Australia and the South Sea islands in the summer] and Kelly Brown is the glue in the Saracens team in the way they play week-in, week-out. Then you have Dave Denton who was one of our finds of last season, so there is real competition for that back-row place. You would like it for other positions sometimes, but the depth and quality is there. I have gone for those six because I believe in those six currently. Hogg is doing as well as Vernon and Beattie."

All that without mentioning the man who arguably saved his job, Rob Harley having come off the bench to salvage what was generally regarded as a fortuitous win in the last tour match of the summer against Samoa, or Chris Fusaro, who has regularly been preferred to Barclay for Glasgow's No.7 jersey of late.

Indeed, the regard in which the latter, who recently captained Glasgow, is held was outlined by his former Bell Baxter High School classmate and current flatmate Peter Horne as he reflected on his own selection along with those of his fellow uncapped Glasgow backs Alex Dunbar, Peter Murchie, Henry Pyrgos and the aforementioned Seymour.

"I'm disappointed that Chris Fusaro's not there," he said, after expressing his personal excitement. "It's tough for him and it would have been sweeter if he was here, but no doubt he'll be in the squad soon."

As a further indication of how much of a blood transfusion has been required as a result of the injury problems, Horne also admitted he had not recognised the phone number when Robinson called to invite him into the squad on Tuesday, because he had never received a call from him before.

The coach expressed confidence that those he has named will, for the most part at least, find ways of being ready to face the All Blacks. "I am confident they will be fit to play," he claimed. "It is down to their healing powers and the way that they can keep their fitness up . . . the mental capacity they have to train in a way that might not be full contact but would get them right to perform on the Sunday. Once I firmly select the team, I will be talking to those players, if they haven't played by then, about mentally and physically dealing with the fact that they might not have had much contact or much game time going into those games. We will deal with that on a case by case position for each player. What we are hoping is that everybody gets through this week and next week with their fitness."

However, in seeking to cover for those who are unavailable, the fact that so many inexperienced Glasgow backs have been included in spite of them being the third lowest scorers among the 24 Heineken Cup entrants, underlines the difficulties Robinson faces and he acknowledged it was not ideal.

"For all of us as coaches, we have all been there. Every coach in the world has experienced that," he said of what has been the worst Scottish start to a European season for eight years.

"It has happened now . . . it is about how everybody will respond. We would have wanted our players to be coming in on form, we'd have liked things to have been different, but we have to deal with what is present for us."

The upside of bringing in so many of the Glasgow contingent is that they will need no adjustment to the working practices of Matt Taylor, the defence coach who has emulated his Scotland predecessor Graham Steadman in producing systems sufficiently effective to sometimes overcome his team's inability to register points.

"Matt has done well with the Warriors. Now it is about bringing his ideas to the team and getting the team to understand them," Robinson acknowledged.