The only change to the Scotland team for Saturday's meeting with Ireland may have been enforced, but the key message from Andy Robinson yesterday was that competition for places is fiercer than ever.

Both Nick De Luca's recall in place of the injured Rory Lamont and, more pointedly, the surprising omission of Euan Murray – available once more after what was, this time, a month-long Sabbathical – let the head coach forcibly make the point that no squad member, bar captain Ross Ford, is guaranteed a starting place.

Admittedly Murray has had to shake off a calf problem to be declared fit to start on the bench but Robinson acknowledged the significance of the fact that he now has sufficient faith in Geoff Cross to let him start even when Murray is available.

"It's very important, and I can say the same for Ruaridh Jackson and for Max Evans," he said, referring to the fact that two more of the starting XV for the crucial World Cup matches against Argentina and England have only been recalled on the bench.

"Guys have got to fight to get their spots. You saw what it meant to Nick De Luca last week not being selected – how he responded, and you saw the same with Graeme Morrison previously. We need that level of performance every time we play. Sometimes it's that rage, sometimes it's to prove a point.

"I thought Geoff did well against France. He was solid on our ball. We had four scrums and we were penalised just once, while we managed to launch some good attacks off our scrum and he competed well at the tackle."

The emotions, however, must be tempered with professionalism, as De Luca pointed out.

"You're upset with losing your position but you can't go on in an emotional state like that," said the centre when asked if his improved showing as a replacement against France had been driven by rage, as Robinson had seemed to suggest.

"I made mistakes, so I thought analytically about what I wanted to do and what I wanted to achieve in the game, my line speed, making my tackles hard and things went my way. Of course, you're always desperate to get on. Whatever the circumstances on the bench, you want to get on as soon as possible. Sorry it had to be due to such a serious injury to Rory, but every cloud has a silver lining for me."

De Luca's sin-binning against Wales was one of the moments Robinson referred to in which his players have dropped off the standards they set themselves, and the centre accepts that he deserves the punishment he received in being left out.

"At the time I thought I was being very sly," he said. "It was clearly a yellow card. I wouldn't defend myself. I had visions of him running through and scoring a try and thinking I need to put in a clever block here but it was clumsy and in slow-mo it was even worse. I put my hand up, I was dropped for it and came back – and happily things worked out.

"It's hard, you can be a bit of a scapegoat but I did deserve to be dropped. I was yellow-carded and it's unacceptable. It was sloppy for me. Happily, you can get other chances and for me it was the following week. The yellow card was a big part in getting dropped, clearly. That's two now and that's enough I think."

As De Luca also rightly pointed out, players should not need to be omitted from the team in order to realise what is required of them.

"It shouldn't be because you get dropped you run harder or give it more. Playing for your country you should be giving 110 per cent all the time," he said.

Saying which, he believes that setbacks can help motivate the team.

"We're still 0 for 3," he noted. "Last weekend we played some good rugby and we're not upset as such now, we're angry we're not closing these games out.

"It's the same as all sports - you've got to play to the final whistle and it's just little errors here and there that are costing us the games."

As the coaches demand greater consistency from the players so, it is fair to say, the players can draw some confidence from overdue consistency in selection, with the decision to restrict change to the absolute minimum.

Also reassuring is that the required reshuffle has resulted in a specialist outside centre being brought into the side while, in replacing his injured brother on the wing, Sean Lamont is back in his best position.

That switch also goes some way to redressing what might have been something of a mismatch in terms of the aerial abilities of the respective back threes had Evans been brought in as a direct replacement for the younger Lamont.

It will also have been a relief to all concerned that Greig Laidlaw's recovery from concussion, and Mike Blair's from a dead leg, means Scotland are able to end a disturbing sequence in terms of the management's apparent uncertainty over its best XV in which the half-back pairing had changed in each of the last nine matches.

Scotland team v play Ireland, Aviva Stadium, Saturday.

S Hogg (Glasgow Warriors); L Jones (Edinburgh), N De Luca (Edinburgh), G Morrison (Glasgow Warriors), S Lamont (Scarlets); G Laidlaw (Edinburgh), M Blair (Edinburgh); A Jacobsen (Edinburgh), R Ford (capt, Edinburgh), G Cross (Edinburgh), R Gray (Glasgow Warriors), J Hamilton (Gloucester), J Barclay (Glasgow Warriors), R Rennie (Edinburgh), D Denton (Edinburgh).

Replacements: S Lawson (Gloucester), E Murray (Newcastle), A Kellock (Glasgow Warriors), R Vernon (Sale Sharks), C Cusiter (Glasgow Warriors), R Jackson (Glasgow Warriors), M Evans (Castres).