Sport: Gray back in squad as Scots reinforce for Dublin
● Calcutta Cup heroes face being left out
Mike Blair has hinted that Scotland could make changes to the Calcutta Cup-winning starting XV and bench to face Ireland in Dublin on Saturday.
An improving injury situation means head coach Gregor Townsend could name the same XV for a third straight game but he boosted his options yesterday by adding ten players to what is a now 40-man squad for the last two Natwest Six Nations matches, away in Ireland and Italy.
Skillscoachblairsaid:“we’ve been able to bring guys into our squad and create options.
“You will have tactics for certain opponents, certain players will fit that. So it might be that you end up playing the same team. But, if there are ways we feel we can manipulate Ireland with different personnel, we would do that. We wouldn’t just keep the same team because they’ve won.
“The game has moved on a bit. You can target certain teams with certain players. These are all discussions that we have. It’s not picked out of a hat, the team.”
Edinburgh openside John Hardie returns to the Scotland set-up for the first time since he served a three-month ban for gross misconduct after an internal SRU investigation into what was widely reported to be cocaine use.
Lock Richie Gray, wings Byron Mcguigan and Lee Jones, centre Alex Dunbar and front-rowers Fraser Brown, Darryl Marfo and Zander Fagerson all return from injury.
Young Glasgow scrum-half George Horne receives a first full Scotland call-up and Edinburgh back-rower Magnus Bradbury is recalled.
The influx brings a wealth of experience to the squad for the final Six Nations push.
When Hardie’s problems became public last autumn there were thoughts that he may not be seen in a Scotland squad again, but Blair said it was an obvious decision to bring him back now that he is available again.
“He’s a fantastic player,” said the former Scotland scrumhalf and skipper. “He has a good pedigree and a good history playing with Scotland. When you have a player like that available it would be silly not to have him on board. He’s had his time off. He’s been helped through that and now he can focus on his rugby.”
Gray was impressive in an 80-minute display as his club Toulouse beat Bordeaux away at the weekend and will be hoping to force his way into the reckoning for a first taste of the tournament this year, while Glasgow tighthead Fagerson returns earlier than expected after an eve-of-competition foot injury looked set to keep him out for the duration.
The Glasgow duo of hooker Brown and centre Dunbar both return from head knocks and an additional thigh problem for the latter.
“It is a boost,” added Blair of the reinforcements. “It increases the competition we’ve had.
“What we’ve found is that players coming in for injured players or experienced players who were unavailable have come in and done a really good job. It makes for interesting selection meetings when you have guys coming back who are up against guys who are in form. It’s a good situation.”
Blair admitted the job of the Scotland coaches this week was to strike a balance between harnessing the surge of confidence that has come off the back of last weekend’s stunning 25-13 win over England and tempering it with the message that facing Ireland away is a massive test.
“It’s a confident group of players,” he said. “But they’re also aware that things don’t just happen. You know, that performance against Wales [a 34-7 thumping on the opening weekend], that was only three games ago.
“So we’re aware that we’re not that finished article.
“There is lots of work that goes into a good performance and we need a lot of things to go right if we’re going to perform in Ireland.”
● Mike Blair knows what it’s like to be in a winning Scotland team in Dublin, but realises the challenge the present Ireland side will pose on Saturday Since the bracing reality check of Cardiff on the opening weekend of this year’s Natwest Six Nations the two home wins which followed have done little to deflect scrutiny from Scotland’s dreadful away record in the competition.
That is only going to crank up this week as the Scots face a potentially defining showdown with pacesetters Ireland at the Aviva Stadium and look to prove that they can make the breakthrough from what has become an impressive home record, capped by the Calcutta Cup glory last weekend, and finally get a big one to stick on the road.
The wretchedness of the Scottish away record is rammed home, as if needed, by the observation that the surprise win in Dublin 20 March 2010 is, arguably, the only truly meaningful victory outside of Edinburgh since the Six Nations began in 2000.
There have been a few wins in Rome, with the one under Vern Cotter two years ago stopping a long losing rot and sparking a bit of muchneeded momentum. But beyond that, the only other away triumph of any note was the last win in Cardiff 16 years ago, which descended into little more than a bounce game between two sides at the end of disappointing campaigns.
So the only time Scotland have managed to dig out a win when it really mattered, even if it was just to avoid a Wooden Spoon, was the dramatic win at Croke Park against a Triple Crown-chasing Ireland who were playing their last game at the spiritual home of Gaelic sport before moving into the state-of-the-art Aviva which was built on the site of the old Lansdowne Road.
Growing up watching rugby in the late 1980s and 1990s beating Ireland home and away, or at least not losing, became the yearly banker before the Scots were stunned by the onslaught of the emergence of Brian O’driscoll and a new golden generation in that first Six Nations in 2000.
Scotland coach Mike Blair took part off the bench eight years ago in a 23-20 victory which was the first in Ireland since an Alan Tait try helped eke out a 17-16 win at Lansdowne Road in 1998.
Johnnie Beattie scored a fine try and stand-off Dan Parks had his finest hour in a Scotland jersey, pulling the strings and kicking the points, including the last-gasp matchwinner from the touchline. “It was some game. Ireland had a lot on it,” recalled Blair. “They were going for a Triple Crown and it was the last game at Croke Park. We hadn’t had the most successful season. It was a great experience as the team pulled together and Dan Parks had a really good game.
“I remember Dan had a few drinks after the game and was commentating on it at 2am in the morning in the team room. Talking himself up a lot. He had a fantastic game and had incredible nerve to kick at the end. It was a great occasion.” A similarly close outcome in the Scots’ favour would be swiftly snappeduprightnowasthatelusive big away win is craved as the perfect follow-up to the joyous scenes at BT Murrayfield last weekend and the rousing 25-13 win over England.
“This will be at least as tough as facing England at home. Ireland play a very dominant brand of rugby,” said Blair.
“They’ve been very successful with it and will be firm favourites for the game. England, the second-best team in the world, that was a big challenge, but this week is something a bit different.
“One key thing about them is their relentless phase play. Their ability to get into your 22 and suffocate you. They will stay there until they take points away.
“They’ve done that at international level, obviously, but you also look at Leinster. That’s part of their game, as you saw when they had I think 42 or 43 phases against Exeter. And they have similar personnel here.
“Ireland did it well against Wales. Whenever they got into that gold zone, that finish zone, they were coming up with points. So that’s going to be a big focus for us, preventing that from happening.”
One of Blair’s main roles is working closely with the players in his old position of scrum-half and he was delighted to see the inclusion of George Horne, pictured right, brother of centre Peter, in the new expanded squad after working closely with the 22-year-old in his dual role with Glasgow Warriors.
Ali Price has also bounced back from a difficult day in Cardiff and, at the other end of the experience spectrum, is Greig Laidlaw who has