Winning the only thing that matters as Lamont renews rivalry with old friends

Thursday 21 June 2012

TheY are on the brink of making history by becoming the first Scottish side to win all three Tests on a summer tour, but Sean Lamont is extremely wary of his team-mates allowing the chance to slip away against Samoa this weekend – not least when one considers the disasters at the Rugby World Cup and in the Six Nations.

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Stuart McAllister

"They will be tough to beat but when it comes down to the bottom line, we must get the win," he said in Apia yesterday after receiving a raucous welcome on a visit to a local school. "The important thing, regardless, is winning after the Six Nations. We are simply desperate for wins.

"The Australia one was a great boost and we backed it up with Fiji but we need to do it again, we need to keep those wins coming in. That is the be-all and end-all, I would take 6-3, 9-6 or 3-0 every weekend from here until eternity as long as we are on the right side of it."Lamont has never been one shy of speaking his mind but then he backs up his words with performances. In any case, it is clear that on this topic he is at one with the rest of the squad all of whom may not care that much about the statistical niceties but do care, a lot, about heading home unbeaten.Samoa hold a special place in Lamont's affections. He made his debut against the nation in 2004 and then won his 50th cap against the same opponents in 2010. As he points out of that latter game, which Scotland scraped through 19-16 with a last-second penalty, was played in cliched Scottish weather, the temperature well below zero and snow all round, so none of the players have any right to complain now that Samoa are getting a chance for revenge in their conditions – the temperature soaring over 30 degrees and more than 90% humidity."Full credit to the boys last week against Fiji," he said. "Full respect to the guys who did the full 80 minutes. It was severely hot, I have never played in conditions like it, but it is what we have to deal with, it is not an excuse for any kind of bad performance. The boys did really well last week, and we are looking to back it up with what will be a very important third win – if we get it."Lamont, like Chris Cusiter, the other player called into the starting line-up admitted he was surprised that Andy Robinson, the head coach, had not stuck with as much of the starting team from that Fiji game as he could, but both are determined that having been given this unexpected chance to start, they will make sure they take it.As expected, Mike Blair and Max Evans, the two players dropped to make way for them, did feature among the replacements when they were announced yesterday, with Rob Harley, the Glasgow flanker, poised to become the fifth player to make his Scotland debut on this tour.He is the only change to the 22, coming on to the bench to replace Richie Vernon who was promoted to the starting XV when John Barclay was allowed home to prepare for his wedding. After two seasons of being the perennial 24th man and missing out on the World Cup squad at the final cut, he probably feels his chance has been a long time coming, but at least the extreme weather means the bench is almost certainly going to be used.For Lamont, though, the prospect of taking on the robust physical challenge of the Samoans is one that cannot come quickly enough. He has been brought into the side to help fight fire with fire and cannot wait for the chance to do just that, though he has enough experience of playing against the top-ranked Samoans in European rugby to know just how hard it is going to be."The whole team can play like Fiji, but they will be a a lot tougher because they have more structure to their game," he said. "They have more players who play in Europe at leading clubs. Obviously, I have played against a few of them but I have not seen their team yet so I'm not exactly sure who will be there. Across the board, there are are players we know from having played with or against, and we know they are excellent."

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Winning the only thing that matters as Lamont renews rivalry with old friends

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