Lateral thinking

Is it time Scotland employed some outside the box thinking? They have a decent pack, but misfiring backs. They do however have a glut of talent at scrum half. I would suggest the following backline may conspire to cross the whitewash a little more often:

15-9 Evans, Lawson, Lamont, Ansbro, Gregor, Weir, Cussiter.

Sure with a short back three, the opposition will be tempted into kicking more, especially cross kicks, but what if they are not accurate enough?

Glas, assuming that everyone is fit, I reckon we'll start the 6Ns with a backline that looks something like this:

9 - Cusiter or Blair, 10 - Jackson; 11 - Walker, 12 - S Lamont, 13 - Ansbro, 14 - Evans, 15 - R Lamont

Robbo is much too conservative to go scrum-half-tastic.

Personally I'd select:
9 - Cusiter or Blair, 10 - Jackson or Weir; 11 - S Lamont, 12 - Grove or Rennie, 13 - Ansbro, 14 - Evans, 15 - R Lamont
if I had the choice, but fortunately I don't!!

But I'd expect us to be showing a bit more of a youthflow glow by RWC 2015:

9 - Laidlaw, 10 - Leonard or Weir; 11 - Visser, 12 - Scott, 13 - Bennett, 14 - Jones, 15 - Thompson or Hogg

Scotland is an enigma. They have a decent set of forwards and backs. Their backs break the line a fair bit but they seem almost unsure as to what to do thus they get isolated and turned over.

Personally i feel that Scotland are missing a very good attacking coach.

For me Cussiter and Weir complement each other. Weir has a good tactical game and is accurate at goal. Personally I think the tall wing men who offer no invention are a waste and I would love to see Evans counter attack from full back. I'd forgotten about Visser qualifying and his selection really is a no brainer, which leaves the other wing free for experimentation. If you put Lamont in the centre, put him at 13. He will get more chances to break and, putting it bluntly, the wings will have more chance of having a pass.

Glas a du wrote:For me Cussiter and Weir complement each other. Weir has a good tactical game and is accurate at goal. Personally I think the tall wing men who offer no invention are a waste and I would love to see Evans counter attack from full back. I'd forgotten about Visser qualifying and his selection really is a no brainer, which leaves the other wing free for experimentation. If you put Lamont in the centre, put him at 13. He will get more chances to break and, putting it bluntly, the wings will have more chance of having a pass.

I don't think Evans has ever played FB, so I see R Lamont, Thompson (Edinburgh), Cuthbert (Bath) and Hogg (Glasgow) battling it out for the 15 shirt in the immediate future.

Robbo seems to like big, powerful 12s (in the Jamie Roberts mould), so I don't believe he will look too much beyond S Lamont or Morrison (god forbid) tbh - unfortunate imo, as a lot of our problems have stemmed from weaknesses at 10 & 12.

Totally agree on attach coach - question is can we realistically afford a big name (Eddie Jones?) or will we go for the cheaper homegrown option (Craig Chalmers of Melrose or Ali Donaldson of Currie?)?

eirebilly wrote:Scotland is an enigma. They have a decent set of forwards and backs. Their backs break the line a fair bit but they seem almost unsure as to what to do thus they get isolated and turned over.

Read that as 'Scotland is an enema' first time!!

Eddie Jones woul be perfect but you may be right that Scotland cant afford him. They need someone to instil belief in the backs that its ok to break the line and support. Its so frustrating to see a Scottish back make a line break and look for support only to see the rest of them forming a defensive line in anticipation of being turned over.

As a neutral I went to the Scotland v England game,of the 20 teams in the World Cup just about every other team had more ideas as to how to manufacture pressure onto an opposition backline in the attempt to create scoring oportunities.
Sadly scotland couldnt put man into a hole,put a ball into a hole,or even create a hole, and this from the Country that gave us sevens,maybe thats where the answer lies.

laurie, you may be on to something there - the good news is that a lot of our youngsters are coming up thru the academies and are focused on the 7s game as well sa getting the odd full game - hopefully that'll improve the creativity cos its seriously lacking right now

Personally I believe sevens contributes greatly to the development of teenage backs,it gives them the ideal to opportunity to exercise and stretch their creative offensive skills without getting smashed to bits, but also and more impotantly they have to do it at pace..

That's a big part of our problem too, laurie, core skills seem to dessert us when the tempo of the game is upped

AsLongAsBut100ofUs wrote:

Glas a du wrote:For me Cussiter and Weir complement each other. Weir has a good tactical game and is accurate at goal. Personally I think the tall wing men who offer no invention are a waste and I would love to see Evans counter attack from full back. I'd forgotten about Visser qualifying and his selection really is a no brainer, which leaves the other wing free for experimentation. If you put Lamont in the centre, put him at 13. He will get more chances to break and, putting it bluntly, the wings will have more chance of having a pass.

I don't think Evans has ever played FB, so I see R Lamont, Thompson (Edinburgh), Cuthbert (Bath) and Hogg (Glasgow) battling it out for the 15 shirt in the immediate future.

Robbo seems to like big, powerful 12s (in the Jamie Roberts mould), so I don't believe he will look too much beyond S Lamont or Morrison (god forbid) tbh - unfortunate imo, as a lot of our problems have stemmed from weaknesses at 10 & 12.

Totally agree on attach coach - question is can we realistically afford a big name (Eddie Jones?) or will we go for the cheaper homegrown option (Craig Chalmers of Melrose or Ali Donaldson of Currie?)?

eirebilly wrote:Scotland is an enigma. They have a decent set of forwards and backs. Their backs break the line a fair bit but they seem almost unsure as to what to do thus they get isolated and turned over.

Read that as 'Scotland is an enema' first time!!

My whole point is that when the chips are down sometimes you have to tear up the rule book, forget who has played where in the past, do something impulsive and unconventional. Lets face it, you've tried the conventional and you don't have the personnel to pull it off. Your defence may be a little shaky, but who cares. if you score some tries first and link up from line breaks that will be a significant psychological victory, one which shouldn't be underestimated. You can always have Morrison, Walker and Danielli on the bench

Weir needs to be integrated into the Scotland team, I was surprised he wasnt taken to the world cup at all.

My Scotland backlien would be something like:

9. Cussiter
10. Weir
11. S.Lamont
12. ??
13. Ansboro
14. Evans
15. Thompson/Cuthbert?

You just need to find a 12 who can bosh and distribute.

"You just need to find a 12 who can bosh and distribute.."

Not sure Comfort....

Ansbro is a powerful lad....then get Lamont on the crash, and a few moves with the very good back row and you have enough bosh....

Its creativity thats needed regardless of size. In desperate times try Evans....he seems the only one who can genuinely make anything happen....

Gregor would be high on the pecking order of many nations. He is a class player.

I agree on the creativity front, but a 12 these days needs to be able to tackle like a backrower, take a crash ball and have good distribution off both hands (unless your jamie roberts, then you just need to be pointed in the right direction).

As has been mentioned, Robinson is very unlikley to ever drop a "bosher" from 12, so getting one who can distribute and isnt soley a "bosher" is key with Weir at 10.

We've also seen with Wales, what can happen when you have a natural centre, JD2's partnership with Roberts has allowed him to rediscover his lions/blues/early wales form. Lamont isnt a centre (and cant even spell pass), morrison is limited, and de luca doesnt seem to offer a lot when ive seen him.

People with way more knowledge than myself, are there any up and coming young 12s/ wing-centre hybrids in Scotland?

"We've also seen with Wales, what can happen when you have a natural centre, JD2's partnership with Roberts has allowed him to rediscover his lions/blues/early wales form"

Agree with that....but the problem is...Scotland DONT have a centre that fits at the moment so must experiement.

Its like England and that flamin 7 position....havent got one so put a make shift in that hopefully works.

Ahh this is true, perhaps there could be some kind of 7 for a 12 swap between Scotland & England? eh, eh eh? everyones a winner!

you know, as long as we can have ben morgan. I mean, we even gave the irish the ruddock boys so its only fair

If any English fan is deluded enough to think Morgan wants to play for England they're mad.....

To me as an outsider, Weir looks the ideal option at 12.

Comfort wrote:Ahh this is true, perhaps there could be some kind of 7 for a 12 swap between Scotland & England? eh, eh eh? everyones a winner!

you know, as long as we can have ben morgan. I mean, we even gave the irish the ruddock boys so its only fair

Comfort, other than Barritt, not sure I'd want any of the English ICs tbh

"Comfort, other than Barritt, not sure I'd want any of the English ICs tbh"

Oh the irony in that statement.....

GeordieFalcon wrote:"Comfort, other than Barritt, not sure I'd want any of the English ICs tbh"

Oh the irony in that statement.....