Cotter’s call has put pressure on new boy Blake
I hear that the training sessions have been brutal
FOR many in t he Scotland team tonight, this will be their one and only chance to impress Vern Cotter and make his final squad for the World Cup — so there is a huge amount at stake.
Normally, the first game of preseason is an easy fixture when you can test the lungs and ease yourself i n. Not this year, with the big tournament just over a month away.
Add in the fact that this match is against Six Nations champions Ireland, a team ranked second in the world, and the heat is on for quite a few in dark blue.
Cotter has made an interesting selection for the game in Dublin as some positions are very competitive and some of those selected could be in a head-to-head battle for a place in the 31-man squad.
Take the second rows, for example. Cotter might take three second rows as well as a player like Rob Harley, who can cover both second row and back row. With the Gray brothers i n pole position, Jim Hamilton and Grant Gilchrist are fighting it out for the final spot and they are playing alongside each other tonight.
Probably the most competitive position is the back row. Blair Cowan was one of our best players in the Six Nations but has been s el ected out of position at blind-side flanker. I would imagine this is to see how flexible he is, to see if he can play there effectively.
Even more interestingly, however, i t allows Hugh Blake a run at openside.
I’m really l ooking forward to seeing Blake play tonight because, finally, we’ll be able to judge him in a meaningful game.
He was treated poorly by Cotter when he selected him for the Six Nations squad before he had played for Edinburgh. It heaped huge expectation and pressure on Blake’s shoulders and was unnecessary.
It’s still a strange one, though, t hat a pl ayer who was not considered good enough to be given a full contract at Edinburgh is now winning his first cap for Scotland and is in with a chance of making the World Cup squad. He has a huge challenge to face in the shape of Chris Henry and Sean O’Brien in the Irish back row.
The selections at stand- off and full-back are interesting, too, and highlight the experimental nature of this game.
Greig Tonks, who played most of the season as a full-back, is picked at stand-off while Ruaridh Jackson, having played most of his rugby at stand- off, is picked at full-back. There is definitely a r eserve full-back role to be filled — with Stuart Hogg the clear first choice — and it might be filled by a utility player like Tonks and Jackson.
The players have been training really hard for the last few months, combining fitness sessions with conditioned games. They have been pushed harder than ever before and I’ve been told it’s been brutal.
They went to a camp i n the Pyrenees where they were tested as much mentally as physically. Cotter would have found out a lot about the players he is working with. He has not had a huge amount of time to work with them before this summer, so he’ll have used it to really challenge the players, but also to educate them even further in how he wants them to play and what is expected of them.
It’s a good thing, too, that he has signed a contract extension because there were a lot of rumours he might be going back to France after the World Cup. His new deal removes any uncertainty and they can all now just focus on the job at hand.
However, this will be a tough run- out tonight as Ireland look close to their full-strength side.
The manner in which they blew Wales away last weekend shows they must have done a lot of rugby in pre-season, not just conditioning.
We’ll find out tonight how much rugby Scotland have done in their preparation but I’d like to see evidence of Cotter’s i nfluence coming through in how they play.
These warm-up matches are not about individuals trying to do things all by themselves, it’s about fitting into the system and the game plans as outlined by the coaches and doing the basics right.
The World Cup odyssey may have started a while back in June but it starts for real tonight in Dublin.