Scotlands Backs

Next Season we will have the same backline plus

Visser - 6ft 4 109kg of scoring machine
Scott - very exciting distributing centre.
Bennet - at Clermont - coming back from injury in next 2 weeks. Regarded as one the best prospects in years. If hes anything like Hogg we are going to have a hell of a back division.

the forwards have dominated in all 3 games apart from a slightly creaky scrum

so....

someone find me a couple of props

I genuinely believe that, without a shadow of a doubt we will win the six nations before 2015 if you think the squad we could have

Full-Back- Ramont, Hogg, Brown
Wing- Sean Lamont, Evans, Jones, Visser
Outside- De Luca, Ansbro
Inside- Bennet, Scott, Shingler? (who can also play 10)
Fly-Half- Laidlaw, Weir, leonard, Jackson, Alex Blair
Scrum Half- Cusiter, Blair, Lawson
No.8- Wilson, Vernon, Beattie, Denton,
Open-side- Barclay, Grant, Fusaro, Beattie
Blind-side- Brown, Harley, Macinally
Lock- Kellock, Gilchrist, Mackenzie, Gray, Hamilton
Prop- Murray, Shiells, Cross, Jacobsen(might have passed it ), WP Nel
Hooker- MacArthur, Ford Lawson

and a Possible starting team of:

15. Hogg
14. Visser
13. DeLuca/Evans/Ansbro
12. Bennett (who has to get past Fofana to play for Clermont)/Scott
11. Evans/ Jones
10. Weir/Laidlaw
9. Blair/Cusiter
8. Denton/ Beattie
7. Rennie/Barclay/
6. Brown
5. Gray
4. Mackenzie/ Gilchrist/ Hamilton
3. Murray
2. Ford
1. WP Nel

16. Lawson
17. Cross
18. Kellock/Gilchrist/ Hamilton/ MacKenzie
19. Whoever is playing the best out of the backrows not starting
20. Cusiter/Blair
21. Weir/Laidlaw
22. Rory Lamont

1..9 - Isn't Nel a tighthead?

donkey, yes, he is.

From this morning's Herald:

On balance, attack is much improved

by Kevin Ferrie, Senior Sports Writer

The leg break suffered by Rory Lamont means there must be another reshuffle of the Scotland back line for next month's meeting with Ireland just as Scotland look to have moved closer to achieving a genuine attacking edge.

Having gained more yards in possession than any other player in this season's tournament by the time he left the field on Sunday, his loss is a significant one.

However, his departure also meant that by the end of the match Scotland had, for the first time in this campaign, a full back division who were playing in their recognised positions and there was enough in the overall performance to offer some encouragement to suggest they have found a better attacking balance.

Allied to the energy being brought in by the youngsters, with Stuart Hogg, Lee Jones and Duncan Weir all scoring their first points for their country, it all pointed to promising signs on what might otherwise have been a depressing day for the Scottish rugby community as a fifth successive defeat was registered for the first time in eight years.

In the pack, Dave Denton and Richie Gray have also introduced youthful vigour over the past year or so and there is a real sense a new era may be looming.

Mark Bennett's imminent return to action for Clermont Auvergne may well mean the 40-year wait for a teenager to start a Test for Scotland could end in corporation bus mode with two coming along in swift succession, while Tim Visser's attacking prowess will be introduced as soon as he is qualified on residency, midway through the summer tour of Australia and the South Seas.

There is, then, plenty of reason to be optimistic that Lee Jones' assertion that Scotland will now start to score more freely after bagging two tries against France, the first time Scotland have done so in a championship match at Murrayfield against any team other than Italy in the past six years.

However, for two reasons, it would be wrong for anyone to draw too much comfort from those scores by Stuart Hogg and Lee Jones. Many of us pointed out before this match that Scotland would find it easier to attack against France because they are prepared to offer their opponents more space and that proved to be the case.

We were also offered a further reminder that Scotland need a disproportionate amount of possession before finding ways of crossing the opposition try line than their rivals.

Once again Scotland dominated the statistical battle, winning far more ball in the opposition 22 (37 phases to France's 14), completing far more passes (212 to 137), making twice as many line breaks (six to three) and having to make far fewer tackles (99 to 142) to identify but a few.

Yet it was France who found a way to win by capitalising on what were perhaps the only two clearcut chances they created, before ratcheting up the power in the closing stages to deny Scotland the chance to register a match-winning third try.

As they prepare to head to Ireland, the Scots must prepare for another very different kind of examination against Ireland's choke tackle defence which can allow teams to gain ground relatively easily, but challenges their capacity to keep hold of the ball by preventing them from getting to ground.

Rory Lamont's absence is a major loss, then, but Scotland have plenty of power runners who should be able to test Ireland in much the way Wales did when they recorded a third successive win over their Celtic rivals on the championship's opening weekend.

In Denton, Gray and captain Ross Ford they have forwards whose running power will trouble any team and that back-line balance looked much improved.

That being the case, the bigger worry for Scotland's management in the shorter term may be the knee injury suffered by Morrison, who was back on form at centre and whose physical presence means that Sean Lamont can be deployed more usefully further out.

While Joe Ansbro remains Andy Robinson's first-choice outside centre, the head coach has said the same of Chris Cusiter at scrum-half and yet Mike Blair demonstrated, before he, too, had to leave the field injured after half an hour of Sunday's game, why he may be better suited to playing alongside Greig Laidlaw.

Similarly, then, while Nick De Luca failed to impress when starting Scotland's opening two championship matches, he took his latest chance to impress when he came off the bench with a performance which reflected the form he has been showing for Edninburgh this season, not least in the build-up to Jones' try.

Perhaps most exciting of all for the longer term, however, is that having taken what many of us thought was the strongest ever Scotland World Cup squad to New Zealand earlier this season, in terms of depth, so many of those who are shining in this championship did not even make that trip.

It may be unlikely, but it is actually conceivable that Scotland could, by this time next year or even sooner, field an entire back line of players who did not go on that World Cup tour eg (9-15): Greig Laidlaw, Duncan Weir, Tim Visser, Matt Scott, Mark Bennett, Lee Jones and Stuart Hogg.

More immediately, either the half-back combination which started Sunday's game – Blair and Laidlaw – or that which finished it – Cusiter and Weir – will offer a sound basis on which to build for next week and the coaches will hope that the rest of the back line which finished the game with Morrison and De Luca in the centre, Jones and the older Lamont on the wings and Hogg at full-back can further reward the efforts of a pack of forwards that is deserving of much better.

Think KF pretty much has it bang to rights, altho Leonard may be offering an alternative to Weir and NdL, Ansbro or Grove may not have been supplanted by Bennett quite by then

I think that means for Ireland we are looking at:

15. Hogg
14. Schlong
13. DeLuca
12. Morrison
11. Jones
10. Laidlaw
9. Blair

I would much prefer Ansbro at either 12 or 13 but I'm not sure about his injury status, or that of Max. Morrison also aquitted himself well for the blunt tool that he is and that will have more than convinced Robinson that he should stay.

Scott has ruled himself out for his studies (besides, why get involved in the team at this stage?) and I am assuming that De Luca did enough with his storming performance to stay in and that Laidlaw comes through the concussion protocol.

DeLuca seems to have a pretty rotten game when he starts, so I'd maybe have him on the bench. Ansbro is a better option at 13. Does Bennett play inside and outside? I always thought he was a natural 13. We need a young scrum half to put their hand up and say look at me. Cusiter, Blair and Lawson are all 30 or over. Will they still be part of the national team in 2015? We now have a few 10s coming through the ranks but are limited at 9 going forward. When we seem to be solving one problem, another one rears it’s head.

Bennett is a 13/14. Scrum halves are going to be Laidlaw and ... hopefully Samson or McConnell will develop

I'm not sure why this thread is getting so excited, the reason the backline went well V France was Robinson's counter of the blitz.

And I'm not sure who said it but I havn't seen the Scot pack gain parity yet, except for the lineout, let alone dominate everyone they've played.

I don't think Hogg or Jones are giving you anything you didn't have before, except youth, although I would be excited about Visser (if he makes the step up) why isn't he playing yet by the way?

What you have got is an abundance of 9's, can Wales have one please, we'll give you a centre (although not a very good one (yet))

Besides I think you'll lose Robinson soon enough, for one reason or another and start rebuilding in 2-3 years.

I wouldn’t go as far as saying we have an abundance of 9s. What we have are 2 good 9s that are getting towards the end of their careers. I can’t see either Blair and Cusiter playing at the top of their game by the time the next WC comes along, they’ll be 34/35 by then. The only other 9 that gets a regular game is Laidlaw, but he’s seen as a 10 at International level. McConnell is still on a development contract and with everyone back at the club is behind Cusiter, Budgie, and Pyrgos in the pecking order. Don’t know much about how Samson is getting on. We need a couple of guys in the U20s to start getting some game time in the Pro12.

Hogg and Jones absolutely bring something new to the Scotland team. They’re at an age where they haven’t had the skills coached out of them. They take chances and make breaks. How many times in the past have we seen Southwell, Paterson or Lamont make a break through the middle from fullback. I think you could count it on no hands. If they didn’t bring anything new then why include them? Visser isn’t qualified to play till after the Oz game in the summer.

So Hogg who stood up Dusatoir and Roberts at the age of 19 offers nothing, may I remind you that this time last year we had Southwell at 15 who offers as much attacking variety as a limbless Dan Parks.

thebluesmancometh wrote:I'm not sure why this thread is getting so excited, the reason the backline went well V France was Robinson's counter of the blitz.

And I'm not sure who said it but I havn't seen the Scot pack gain parity yet, except for the lineout, let alone dominate everyone they've played.

I don't think Hogg or Jones are giving you anything you didn't have before, except youth, although I would be excited about Visser (if he makes the step up) why isn't he playing yet by the way?

What you have got is an abundance of 9's, can Wales have one please, we'll give you a centre (although not a very good one (yet))

Besides I think you'll lose Robinson soon enough, for one reason or another and start rebuilding in 2-3 years.

Wow, we watch the same games, but our opinions could not be more different and you could not be more wrong, but that is ok