Few surprises as Cotter plans for his final assault
VERN COTTER’S Scotland squad for his final 6 Nations campaign, announced in midweek, contained few surprises.
However, at the same time, it emphasised both the areas where there is great strength-in-depth as well as where the cupboard is slightly bare.
The Scottish coach, bound for Montpellier at the end of the season, has an embarrassment of riches in the centre.
Duncan Taylor, who was so impressive last year, returns after injury where he is joined by the “find” of the autumn internationals, Huw Jones along with Alex Dunbar, Matt Scott and Mark Bennett.
Whether any of these players are good enough to force their way into Lions contention remains to be seen. But most countries would love to have such strength-in-depth to select from.
On the other hand, in an area which was cruelly exposed from time to time in the autumn internationals, the front row, Cotter is less fortunate.
Alasdair Dickinson is still injured and his fellow Edinburgh prop, WP Nel, has been ruled out of the campaign with a neck injury. Of all the injured areas for props to concerned about, the neck is No. 1. Nel is waiting to find out if corrective surgery will be needed.
Zander Fagerson appears to be Nel’s understudy at the moment and he is improving with every game he plays, as was evidenced in the Glasgow match against Munster last weekend. But international rugby is a step up again and the youngster struggled in the autumn.
Cotter has also introduced the uncapped New Zealander, Simon Berghan who qualifies through a Scottish grandfather.
A player who qualifies through the “project player” route is Cornell du Preez, who was called into the squad in the autumn, but who didn’t feature in the squad which must be a bit of a shame for the likes of Adam Ashe and other very promising Scottish back-row players.
Given that Cotter has been working with this group of players and they have continued to progress and develop, it would have been very unusual if there were a lot of new faces in the squad.
The fact that Cotter can continue his journey bodes well for Scotland’s campaign. I would be surprised if there was much change to the final XV that Cotter selects to play against Ireland.
The big challenge for the group will be to see if they can come together quickly and pick up from where they left off in the autumn.
One thing is for sure – given that Cotter was rather unceremoniously dumped from the role in favour of Gregor Townsend, I’m certain the New Zealander will want to make his final Championship in charge of Scotland a memorable one.