Mad idea time.

This may be a slightly off the wall idea however stay with me.
I have watched Sean Maitland closely in his first two internationals and was wondering if there would be any merit in him playing in the 13 shirt.
Both games he has played he has distributed the ball well. He has pace to burn and has a good rugby brain, far better than the current incumbent. I have not seen enough of him in defence to make a judgement on that score.
He offers far too much as a distributor to be stuck out on the wing in my opinion.
Does anyone know if he has played centre? I know he can cover fullback so I can only assume that he can tackle.
Maybe not now but maybe a punt in the summer tour if he doesn't get a shout for the Lions , what do you think?

Yep he has a very slick KIWI rugby brain. His passing and support is top notch. He would very well at 13.

I mentioned this last year some time, possibly before Maitland even decided to join Scotland, needless to say I was shot down in flames. But I still think he would be a good centre rather than being out on the wing. Lamont or Seymour could play at 14. Lamont isn't a centre and shouldn't be there in my view. He's blocking the way for other talents, but he's a good player to have available for Scotland.

Saying this, we still have Horne, Dunbar and Taylor yet to be tested out. Any of those would fill the 13 shirt nicely and lets not forget Ansbro. He may have suffered a horrible injury but he'll hopefully make a come back and I really rate him as a player.

Not a terrible idea, but I don't approve of playing top players out of position. No doubt he'd do a good job with his good skills and rugby brain but then we'd end up replacing him on the wing with the headless chicken Evans! I'd much rather stick with Slamont at 13 (also not a centre, I know) in the hope that he is ousted by Dunbar, Horne, Grove, Cairns or even his holy Messiahness. Or Taylor/Ansbro. I think we have more potential close to breaking through at centre than on the wing.

With the wingers, we have Visser and Maitland playing with Squashed Goblin and Seymour as replacements. Behind them we're left with Lee Jones and Tom Brown. Dougie Fife possibly not too far off either mind you. Farndale hopefully recovers fully from his injury as he looked like one to watch!

Well if Scotland have a good winger who has pace to burn on the bench then yes by all means play Maitland at centre. Other than that Scotland are better with Maitland at 14, with Visser at 11 and Hogg at 15. That is 3 guys with pace to burn in the back 3, it is a long time since Scotland have had this kind of luxury since probably 1999.

Just meant switching him and Lamont.
Would mean we didn't lose Lamont's physical presence but gained a ball player in the middle of the park.
Against Italy he regularly popped up in the 13 position and looked the part going forward.
We have other wingers on the fringes just now and a dearth of natural 13's due to injuries.
Just thought it might be worth a shot
In the summer to see how he goes.
The last two games he's been moved into fullback when hoggs came off so it's not as if its going to upset the structure of the team if he moves off his wing.

Not such a mad idea at all. I agree he could do some decent damage in the centres.

Linebreaker wrote:Not such a mad idea at all. I agree he could do some decent damage in the centres.

But then if he gets selected as a centre, the opposition team V Scotland will prepare throughly to take account of Maitland playing at centre, i.e. someone Big and powerful like a Jamie Roberts or a Billy Twelvetrees or a Sebastian Basteareud will closely mark Maitland knowing that a lot of Scotland's best and most dangerous backs moves go through/involve him.

They will do that anyway. North and Cuthbert are not small men.
We'll see how he does against big wings like that. It would be decent barometer as to how he would cope in midfield.

He was for a time a Wing with The Crusaders and held his own with some of the biggest backs in the World in Super Rugby.Sad he isn`t wearing a Black Shirt he was`nt that far away from AB honours.An excellent all round player does the basics well that includes tackling.As to size Conrad Smith isn`t a giant
and HE`s the best in the business at 13.

he's really just used to playing with a backline that runs and passes to a very high level with dagg, DC, Zac G, Fruean et all..

Last week he stayed on his wing and this week he came looking for work more- as a winger should. Big difference between that and the centre roll. Odd he should be singled out for a skillset he was never known for here but interesting all the same. good to see he's thriving...

Taylorman. He might not have been known for it in New Zealand but it appears obvious in the last two performances that he does possess these attributes.
He did come looking for work inside and he kept popping up in the 13 channel that's what got me thinking.
I agree it's totally different to actually playing in the position full time.
He's a real find for us regardless of his position on the park.

Yeah with Fruean dominating Centre with the Crusaders last few years he didnt get the chance there. But the style of the saders play also kept him very busy on the wing. His strength here was his finishing, balance and all out pace.

That was my concern by him going to Scotland. He's going to need to initiate play more rather than rely on finishing- especially at test level where the balls not going to be handed to him regularly on a plate.

He seems to be doing that so thats good to see. I was critical of him not coming off his wing last week enough- watching play too much from the sideline (the only time he did was when England scored late second half with no one covering his corner) but this week he got hungrier which is good.

He (and mainly Zac Guilford) specialised in punching through the midfield off their wings over the last couple of years for the Saders and with Sonny Bills time there they all started doing the offload thing which is exactly what Maitland did well yesterday...

My concern ,being a veteran Scotland supporter ,is that on the wing for us he's going to be too far away from the play to have an impact. We are not known for our silky handling skills. So far he has managed to get enough ball to make a positive impact.
I think the occasion got to him a wee bit against England but he still had a major part to play in both our scores. He looks to be developing a good working relationship with Hogg which should last us a while as they are both young.

Yes I like Hogg, good instincts at the back with ball in hand and deceptively quick with those little legs!

Best 15 by a street so far this 6N.

Thats why Maitland will be tracking him. He knows things can happen when he gets the ball- a la the Crusaders- they all fed off eachother.

I think it would be a far smarter idea to send Scotland a specialist centre.

Not a silly idea Heuer, but we don't need him at centre, we need him on the wing. One of the reasons he's worked well in the team is because he plays with Hogg, week in, week out. If he can keep cutting into the midfield when there's space, we don't need him in that channel all the time.

It may not seem like it, but we're looking fairly good for outside centres over the next 5 years. Cairns, Dunbar, Ansbro (here's hoping) or Bennett are all young and likely to be international class 13s. All of them can step and distribute, unlike his mighty Schlongness who, whilst being one of the team's great servants, is not likely to win more candidates for his Footballing Masterclass than someone like Fofana.

His Impressing Laydeez Masterclass, however...

Yes agreed we do have potential options but most of these guys are injured , coming back from injury, not rated.
I played against Bennett a couple of seasons ago and whilst he impressed I didn't think he was international class at that time but he was v young. Hope ansbro makes it I really like him as a player.

Same here Heuer27, in m mind he is Scotland's top centre, or at least before he got injured. Hopefully he'll be close to playing again for summer tour, but he shouldn't rush to get back into rugby.