Scotland name side for Romania

Scotland named their side tonight for their pool opener. Fairly strong side; interesting selections include Danielli on the left wing, Jackson over Parks at stand off and Geoff Cross at tighthead. Blair is preferred to Cusiter and Al Kellock captains the side.

http://www.scottishrugby.org/content/view/2103/2/

Scotland team to play Romania in Rugby World Cup Pool B on Saturday 10 September at Stadium Southland, Invercargill, kick-off 1pm local (2am BST)

15 Chris Paterson (Edinburgh) 105 caps, 22 tries, 89 conversions, 163 penalties, 3 drop-goals, 786 points
14 Max Evans (Castres) 20 caps, 3 tries, 15 points
13 Joe Ansbro (London Irish) 7 caps, 1 try, 5 points
12 Sean Lamont (Scarlets) 56 caps, 8 tries, 40 points
11 Simon Danielli (Ulster) 30 caps, 6 tries, 30 points

10 Ruaridh Jackson (Glasgow Warriors) 8 caps, 2 conversions, 1 penalty, 1 drop-goal, 10 points
9 Mike Blair (Edinburgh) VICE-CAPTAIN 72 caps, 6tries, 30 points

1 Allan Jacobsen (Edinburgh) 56 caps
2 Ross Ford (Edinburgh) 49 caps, 2 tries, 10 points
3 Geoff Cross (Edinburgh) 6 caps
4 Richie Gray (Glasgow Warriors) 12 caps
5 Alastair Kellock (Glasgow Warriors) CAPTAIN 34 caps, 1 try, 5 points
6 Kelly Brown (Saracens) 46 caps, 4 tries, 20 points
7 John Barclay (Glasgow Warriors) 29 caps, 2 tries, 10 points
8 Richie Vernon (Sale Sharks) 12 caps

Substitutes
16 Scott Lawson (Gloucester) 28 caps, 2 tries, 10 points
17 Alasdair Dickinson (Sale Sharks) 21 caps, 1 try, 5 points
18 Nathan Hines (Clermont Ferrand) 73 caps, 2 tries, 10 points
19 Ross Rennie (Edinburgh) 8 caps
20 Chris Cusiter (Glasgow Warriors) 53 caps, 3 tries, 15 points
21 Dan Parks (Cardiff Blues) 62 caps, 4 tries, 15 conversions, 48 penalties, 14 drop-goals, 236 points
22 Rory Lamont (Toulon) 25 caps, 6 tries, 30 points

I'm probably not gonna watch this one live, but wish all the Scottish posters the best of luck!

It looks pretty much first choice from Scotland then,

Will Hines remain on the bench in the future games? He was outstanding for Leinster in the HC and if he can play like that for Scotland he would be very useful.

Its good to see Cusiter back, especially since Blair has been unimpressive recently.

Scotland by 30 with this team - should be a good confidence booster.

Wow - I am very surprised by this one, it is basically the full strength team (bar Danielli!). With a tougher game against Georgia 5 days later I definitely would have thought he would have saved the big guns for that.

Pressures on though - if this team doesn't pump Romania then we are in trouble!

I would think that with two games in such a short time there will be a number of changes for the Georgia match, although with guys like Ford, Barclay, Gray, Kellock etc only having had two games of Rugby in the past six months they may see more game time than the others in peperation for the Argentina match.

If Hines is not in the Robbos strongest XV is it because Kellock is captain or that he thinks he offers more playing wise than Hines? If its the latter I fail to see it myself.

I think we'll see Hines feature against the Georgians to counteract their physicallity, possibly at 6 with Brown replacing Vernon at No 8 and Stroks coming in also.

A good team though and we have to come away with a 30 + win to send a message to the Argentinians and English.

Let's hope the scrum has improved drastically as that's the area the Romanians will target (as will everyone else!)

I don't think that this is necessarily Scotland's strongest XV, my guess is that Robbo has picked a side with one eye on Georgia next Wednesday. Graeme Morrison is carrying a slight knock, so S Lamont is the obvious alternative at IC. I would definitely expect the 8 players left out of this one - Rory Lawson, Nick De Luca, Graeme Morrison, Euan Murray, Jim Hamilton, Alasdair Strokosch, Dougie Hall and Moray Low - to feature next week against Georgia.

The oppo - Romania: I Dumitras; S Ciuntu, C Gal, I Dimofte, M Lemnaru, D Dumbrava, L Sirbu; M Lazar, M Tincu (capt), P Ion, V Ursache, C Petre, M Macovei, D Carpo, O Tonita.
Subs: B Suman, S Florea, V Poparlan, S Burcea, F Surugiu, I Cazan, F Vlaicu.

Yes, we've saved the really hard men for Georgia and I have no doubt that Murray, Hines, Stroker and Brown (at 8) will all feature there so that we can have Hines and Gray taking the lineout ball.

Hopefully Blair can bother his ars e to produce a decent shift.

Danielli simply has to realise that he currently isn't doing enough to warrant the shirt.

Come on lads. 5am in Abu Dhabi. Croissant, coffee and a 30 point margin would be nice.

Its good to see that AR isn't taking any risks and with a strong side they should get their WC off to a good start.

Unfortunatley Wales and Scotland, possibly Ireland at the moment as well aren't in a position whereby they can take so called 'lesser' sides easy, we still need to play very well even against these teams to secure the win.

Squad is fairly powerful with the grinders playing Georgia. Harsh criticism of Blair too I think. His game against Italy was the best I have seen from him in navy blue for a couple of years.

Pressure is on to score some tries in this game. Any of the Scots guys staying up for this one? I will be and will probably be on here.

Will defo be getting up to watch it - am up in Orkney with eldest

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:Will defo be getting up to watch it - am up in Orkney with eldest

Enjoy Orkney. Good luck to Scotland

I'm not being funny but if we're seeing Georgia as a tough match then there is something really wrong with Scottish rugby. As far as I'm concerned these are warm ups for the two real matches. Obviously they can't see it like that but we should.

I agree McKay.

There was a build up to the WC on ITV last night which went through the 'contenders' chances of winning. Countries profiled were England, France, Ireland, Wales, Argentina, SA, NZ and Australia. No mention for Scotland at all which really peed me off!

But they did go through all the countries who qualified and showed clips of Romania and Georgia's games.

There is absolutely nothing to fear there at all.

To reiterate from my post on another thread:

From a Scottish point a view:

Romania - anything less than a 30 point margin will be disappointing scoring at least five tries in the process. We hammered a near full strength Italy without really getting our of second gear. This is a real chance to build some confidence in getting over the try line and ironing out any issues raised in the Ireland and Italy games.

Georgia - Again, a large win is needed without the game being a real walkover. I know their players play a to a high domestic standard but I can't see that as an excuse to scraping a win over them. If we struggle to beat Georgia, we'll get humped by England and possibly Argentina too. Size isn't everything (apparently :o/) because you need the fitness, skills, mobility and vision to go with it. Anything less than a 15 point margin will be unacceptable.

Argentina - Psycologically, we have the upper hand after last years tour. Argentina aren't the team they were and without a doubt, we have improved since then. The main obstacle for Scotland is panicking and worrying about the opposition rather than focussing on our own game. Decision making will be key in this match so the Kellock et al will have to have the belief in their ability. Play like they did for the last 20 mins against Argentina in 2007 - but from the first minute this time. Do that, and they will win this game comfortably.

England - In my view, the pool decider. It will probably boil down to the NZ v France result. If France win, both teams will be desperate to win the group and avoid NZ. Could go either way with our backrow edging theirs and their back line edging ours. Should be a cracker in any case.

Predictions:

Scotland 43 - 6 Romania
Scotland 27 - 5 Georgia
Scotland 17 - 9 Argentina
Scotland 53 - 0 England

Tattie Scones RRN wrote:Scotland 53 - 0 England

+1

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:

Tattie Scones RRN wrote:Scotland 53 - 0 England

+1

thats a bit pessemistic, id go for 80+ - 0

Imperialbigdave wrote:

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:

Tattie Scones RRN wrote:Scotland 53 - 0 England

+1

thats a bit pessemistic, id go for 80+ - 0

Yes but I'd say it would be the fringe players for the England match, with the big guns coming out for the 1/4s

Imperialbigdave wrote:

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:

Tattie Scones RRN wrote:Scotland 53 - 0 England

+1

thats a bit pessemistic, id go for 80+ - 0

Me too - with Jonny Wilkinson missing 6 consecutive drop goals and Ashton's ga y swan dive spilling the ball over the line in the 79th minute.

George Carlin wrote:

Imperialbigdave wrote:

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:

Tattie Scones RRN wrote:Scotland 53 - 0 England

+1

thats a bit pessemistic, id go for 80+ - 0

Me too - with Jonny Wilkinson missing 6 consecutive drop goals and Ashton's ga y swan dive spilling the ball over the line in the 79th minute.

+ 1
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Really like the look of this team - probably the most attack minded back line we can really assemble, which hopefully means that Robbo has made it clear that a try-scoring bonus point is mandatory in this game. Provided Blair gives quick ball, and he played well-ish in the warm-up game, those backs should do well.

First choice pack. I suspect AR has looked at the Georgian forwards and thought that Murray and Hamilton would be well suited to combining in the front five for that match, and Morrison and NDL will I expect be recalled.

Looks like he's taking the group stage in two parts, and just focusing on the best combinations to win these first two games. Go out with an attacking side against Romania, and have a few bulkier blokes held back to handle Georgia.

Agree that a 30 point difference is par for this one. We shouldn't accept anything less.

Heading up to Knoydart on the old stag! Old Forge lock-in here we come!

Defo staying up but unlikely to be online.

Pretty decent line-up, but certainly not our strongest in my view. And I'd be very pleasantly surprised to get a 30 pointer.

Going to have a punt on this meaning the following will play against Georgia:

Chunk
Hall
Murray
Hamilton
Hines
Stroks
Rennie
Vernon / Brown
Cusiter
Parks
S Lamont
Morrison
De Luca
Ansbro
R Lamont

S Lawson
Dickinson
Kellock
Vernon / Brown
R Lawson
Jackson
M Evans

Back to the selection for this game though...

Really surprised by the front row, as that is our strongest in terms of form. Euan to start against Georgia then. Can Chunk really play every game? Its a risk we can't afford.

Second row. I'd be more than happy to see Hamilton and Hines vs Georgia, like FES. However I still think Kellock and Gray are too light weight and we lack ballast when they are selected together.

Back row. I think we'll see Rennie, Stroks and Brown vs Georgia and I'm happy with that. Its Stroks vs Vernon for the Pumas.

Blair needed another game after coming off at 61mins vs the Azzuri. If he doesnt perform he will be 3rd choice from now on in.

Jackson - big game for the young man. Check out the team arrival, Parksy looked his confident old self which is undoubtedly a good thing http://www.scotlandrugbyteam.org/content/view/2596/232/

Centres - I like it. We should make some progress here against the Romanians. If nothing else Sean will get plenty of practice of making ground, just hope he lifts his head to look for some support. With Vernon and Barcs playing there should be.

Back 3 - I thought we might see Ansbro on the wing at some point outside De Luca. Perhaps we will against Georgia then?