SCOTLAND heading into their fourth match in a row with their fourth different set of half-backs has the potential to be interpreted as a sign of confidence or of uncertainty.
Against Ireland in the first of the warm-up matches, it was Rory Lawson and Ruaridh Jackson; against Italy it was all change with Mike Blair and Dan Parks, the 2007 World Cup first-choice pairing.
As the tournament proper got under way, it was Blair and Jackson who found themselves paired up and now Lawson and Parks have reformed what was a highly successful partnership last autumn as the former claimed wins in his first two matches as Scotland captain against Samoa and world champions South Africa.
It has been a strange sequence of events, made more so since Chris Cusiter, arguably the most gifted of Scotland’s half-backs, is still waiting in the wings. Yet, in many ways, it reflects the determination of Andy Robinson, the head coach, to live up to his claim that it is about fielding the right team to win each match.
Against Ireland, Lawson was the only fully-fit scrum-half, making it an easy choice. He was keen to give both of his stand-offs the chance to run a game before getting to the tournament itself which explained why Parks replaced Jackson for the second match, while Blair was in need of playing time when he finally shook off his ankle injury to play in the game against Italy.
For last weekend’s tournament opener there was a belief, partly justified by events, that they could out-gun the Romanians out wide, which is why Jackson was deemed the better starting option. Against Georgia, however, the priority is field position which makes Rory Lawson’s rapid delivery to the Parks boot a crucial combination.
For all that there are wholesale changes to the team from the Romania game, Robinson is still methodically putting together combinations.
Further along the back line, Graeme Morrison’s reintroduction, having fully shaken off a shin issue, is a key factor, allowing what looked the best midfield combination in the warm-up matches, of the Glasgow Warrior with Edinburgh’s Nick De Luca, to be re-established while Sean Lamont returns to the wing.
He does so as part of a back three in which Max Evans, the vital spark, is retained and Sean’s brother, Rory -- Scotland’s first-choice full-back at the last World Cup -- is introduced.
In the pack, the same description applies to the reintroduced second-row combination of Nathan Hines and Jim Hamilton, while Allan Jacobsen and Euan Murray were the first-choice props at the last tournament before the former damaged his calf in the opening game.
Hooker Scott Lawson’s inclusion as a much lighter option than Ross Ford, may be the biggest surprise in the team, but he was another who started a match at the last World Cup and he has fought his way back with some vigorous performances round the pitch, not least after he came off the bench on Saturday.
The back row is very much selected for a specific purpose with Kelly Brown and Al Strokosch the two most physical loose forwards that Scotland have available to them.
What is most striking of all is that Robinson has been able to put together so many different combinations without any of them looking overly experimental or risky. That is the mark of the depth of quality of a squad where no player is guaranteed his place.
However, what is as yet unclear is whether that combination has driven up standards sufficiently for Scotland to be serious challengers come the knockout stages of this tournament.
With only two players -- back-up front-row men Moray Low and Dougie Hall -- yet to be involved in either squad in New Zealand, they have already shown that this is a deeper squad than any other that Scotland has sent to a World Cup.
The challenge facing them was to produce not just an improved squad, but a team capable of being the first to exceed expectations on the world stage.
It is debatable whether reaching the quarter-finals, when they were seeded third in this pool but ranked above the Argentinians when it got under way, would achieve that.
Either way, though, while there is nothing truly experimental-looking about the team picked for today’s match, there is still a great deal to be found out about Scotland’s 2011 World Cup squad.
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