Van der Walt injury a blow for Cockerill
Former Scotland boss and our new columnist
JACO VAN DER WALT will miss Edinburgh’s game against Benetton tomorrow, but should be fit to play for Scotland next weekend, according to Richard Cockerill.
With Adam Hastings suspended from the Ireland game on March 14 as well as the match against Italy six days later, Van der Walt is expected to be selected as back-up standoff to Finn Russell, as he was for the opening Six Nations matches against England and Wales when Hastings was still making his way back from injury.
Scotland coach Gregor Townsend has other options available to him – Harlequins centre James Lang, for example, has recent experience of playing at 10 – but he will still be hoping the Edinburgh coach’s prognosis is accurate.
“Probably just this week,” Cockerill answered yesterday when asked how long Van der Walt would be out for. “He got a stud on his ankle and had some swelling around his Achilles tendon.
“It has just not gone away. We thought it would, but it hasn’t and he’s just not fit to play. He will be available for somebody next weekend if selected.”
In Cockerill’s ideal world, Van der Walt would be available to play for Edinburgh against Connacht next Saturday, but it is more likely that Nathan Chamberlain will get another run at 10, as he is doing in tomorrow’s PRO14 match at Murrayfield.
The Scotland Under-20 international is one of six changes from the team that began last week’s narrow defeat by Scarlets, with another being his
half-back partner Charlie Shiel, who comes in at 9 in place of Nic Groom. Henry Pyrgos is on the bench while Groom drops out of the 23.
Given Wasps scrum-half Ben Vellacott has signed for next season, one of those other 9s is set to leave Edinburgh in the summer.
Cockerill said. “We’ve got to balance the finances, and one of our senior nines will move on. We’ve brought in a young, Scottish-qualified nine who has got a lot about his game, and the mixture of him with the others that we have will be very good for us.”
The third change in the back division sees Jack Blain take over on the right wing from Darcy Graham, who has been retained by Scotland. In the pack, Dave Cherry starts at hooker after being on the bench last week, while Andrew Davidson is at lock in place of Grant Gilchrist, another who has been kept back by Scotland. Luke Crosbie comes into the back row, with Bill Mata missing out because of a bruised shoulder.
Seven players in all are listed as unavailable because of Scotland duty: Gilchrist, Graham, Duhan van der Merwe, Willem Nel, Jamie Ritchie, Rory Sutherland and Hamish Watson.
Cockerill would clearly prefer to have a full squad from which to select, but has been encouraged by the performances of some of the players who have come in to deputise during the Test windows.
“Guys like Jack Blain have done really well. He’s filled a position at full-back and wing and is developing really well,” the coach said. “Guys like Ally Miller have really stood up and taken his opportunity when he’s had it. And Jamie Hodgson has done well when he has played. There are always positives. There’s a long way to go in the season, I think, so other guys will get opportunities along the way.”
The 27-25 defeat by the Scarlets all but officially ended Edinburgh’s hopes of a top-three finish in PRO14 Conference B and the automatic Champions Cup place that goes with it. But, as nothing is yet set in stone when it comes to European competition next season, and fourth place has been good enough in seasons past, Cockerill remains hopeful of getting into the premier tournament one way or another.
“We still want to qualify for Europe. No-one can definitively tell me how you do that yet – top three guaranteed, top four could be guaranteed. I’m not sure. We’ve got to keep playing and trying to pick up points. Then when we get to the Rainbow Cup we’ll use that to blood some other guys.”
BEN STOKES put in a Herculean shift in the heat of Ahmedabad but Rishabh Pant’s remarkable century and the folly of England’s imbalanced attack left India in full control after day two of the fourth Test.
Pant built to a brilliant 101 as he changed the complexion of the game, striking 13 boundaries and two sixes, with India’s closing 89 ahead on 294 for seven.
At tea it looked as though the unrelenting Stokes might have made the defining contribution, defying illness, stiffness and a muddled team selection to drag India back to 144 for five in response to his side’s modest 205 all out.
Flogging himself for 20 overs in near 40 degree heat he bounced out home captain Virat Kohli for a duck and removed in-form opener Rohit Sharma with a booming inswinger, holding down the fort for long, exhausting spells as the likes of Stuart Broad, Mark Wood and
Olly Stone watched from sidelines.
But England had gambled on just three specialist bowlers, including one – Dom Bess – who turned up visibly shorn of confidence and unable to exert any control. It was a costly decision, with Pant seizing the opportunity to cash in against an attack that was spreading itself painfully thin.
After taking the time to set himself carefully on the surface, he got his side to parity and then cut loose in the evening with an array of the increasingly shots.
With Washington Sundar making 60 not out, India took 141 from a chastening final session with England losing their way entirely unable to shut down Pant, whose hundred came in style, swatting Joe Root for six over midwicket.
His celebrations were barely complete when he dragged the impressive James Anderson to midwicket, giving the seamer his third wicket, having wholly altered the match situation. jaw-dropping
IKNOW there will be supporters of some clubs in Scotland that won’t like me saying this, and I mean no disrespect to players at these clubs, but for me, a huge part of Scotland’s recent success is that we have more players exposed to the top level of the game.
By that, I mean we have a good core of players now who are plying their trade in the English Premier League, as well as having them backed up by some Old Firm players who are doing well for us. When you’re in charge of the national side, it isn’t that you only want to pick players from the big clubs, it’s that the players become better because they are exposed to a higher level of competition.
You could play Celtic and
Rangers players who know what it’s like to play in the Champions League and the Europa League and are used to playing against the best players in the world. But if you’re going from a middle of the league team in Scotland that doesn’t play in Europe then it’s a different ball game. Then you go to England, and it’s a different ball game again.
It’s okay playing in Scotland if you’re getting regular exposure to playing against the best.
But I’ve been looking at some of the sides our smaller teams have been beaten by in the last 10 to 15 years in Europe, and I don’t even know what countries they come from.
So, you have to get to a level to improve you as a player. There’s coaching, but playing at the top level like Celtic and Rangers do regularly in the Europa and the Champions League, that’s good enough to improve you.
Just look at Callum McGregor, Kieran Tierney, Allan McGregor when he played, Alan Hutton who played in the 2008 UEFA Cup final against Zenit. That will make you a better footballer because you get to know what it’s like to play against top players.
Everybody says international level is the top level, but no it’s not, you play against some absolute rubbish at international level. People say to be a player you have to play at
international level. No you don’t. You could play against Bonnyrigg Rose and get a better game than against some of these teams.
Play in the Champions League regularly, play in the English Premier League regularly, then you’re a top player.
A major factor in why we are progressing is that we have a decent number of players now going up against world-class players on a weekly basis.
We have Andy Robertson, of course, Tierney, Scott McTominay, Stuart Armstrong and John McGinn, for example.
For McGinn and some of the lads to go from the middle of the Scottish Premiership and go down to England is a big enough step. John benefited because he was in the Championship first with Aston Villa, then moved up a level.
I have to say, he’s done fantastically well.
He is the perfect example of the point I’m trying to make. There is no doubt at all that that league has made him a better player.
He’s learning every day, watching good players around him every day, playing against top players every week. It definitely improves you, there’s absolutely no doubt about that.
Playing in England makes a huge difference, and to get there, players have to have that will to improve themselves to go along with their talent. The improvement in McGinn as a player is down to John’s drive, and Robertson was the same. He’s now arguably the best left-back in the world… alongside Tierney.
As much as there is an increasing number of Scotland players in the English Premier League, we don’t have enough to fill a team just yet, but I firmly believe that you have to have your best players in the starting line-up.
The system should fit the talent you have, rather than the other way around.
That’s why myself, Alex McLeish and now Steve Clarke have all had to find a way to get Robertson and Tierney into the side. You’ve got to play the two of them, you can’t have one sitting on the bench.
As long as the good players are on the pitch, you have a better chance of winning.
There’s no point in playing a system if you have two great strikers where you only play one, and your second best player is sitting beside you on the bench.
Uruguay played two strikers because they had Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani up front, so they played a 4-4-2 diamond, because they have two great strikers. It’s whatever suits you best. It just so happens we’ve got two great leftbacks, so stick them in the team somewhere.
I played Tierney at right-back sometimes, but I also played him on the left of the back three against England, because he’s not scared to go into people.
The way you can play a left centre-back nowadays, you can still go forward to a certain extent as well, so it doesn’t dampen his attacking instincts too much either.
You have to find a system that accommodates your best players, and it’s no mystery why it’s the players from the
English Premier League, Celtic and Rangers who more often than not find their way into the Scotland squad. It’s because they’re the best players.