Test team selection Glenn Metcalfe was preferred to Derrick Lee at full-back for Saturday's meeting with New South Wales in what looks a significant move ahead of the two Test series with Australia, given the importance Scotland's management are attributing to this match.

The selection of both has not been discounted, with either of them having some sort of experience of playing on the wing. In fact, Scotland could go into the first Test, also in Sydney a week later, with four men who played most of their club rugby at full-back last season, in the starting line-up, since Rowen Shepherd and Cammy Murray are together at centre.

If that is to happen, though, coach Jim Telfer would like the chance to have a full-scale trial run at some stage on Saturday, in the unlikely event that Scotland have sufficient of a lead to be able to experiment.

''We did explore the possibility of playing Lee and Metcalfe alongside one another and we will still consider it,'' he said. ''I personally think that the most effective position for both is full-back, although Lee can maybe play fly-half.

''Metcalfe's best position is full-back,'' he went on. ''If you play him on the wing and Lee at full-back then I think you lose something, but that's a possibility. Lee has played on the wing as well, but I don't think he's a natural winger, whereas Metcalfe is more attuned to playing wing. We want to see Metcalfe playing at full-back at this level.''

Telfer also accepted that a precedent had been set when he was on the British Lions selection panel that chose Alan Tait out of position on the wing for the first two Tests against the Springboks.

''But Tait is a completely different player from Metcalfe or Lee,'' he said. ''He has been an international player at one code or another for 10 years. We did accommodate him on the wing, but there were quite a few other players injured at that point.''

The coach's preparedness to be so open about the thinking behind that selection underlines both how closely matched the pair are and the fact that they have been Scotland's two best attacking options on tour so far. That, then, is what makes the comparison with the Tait situation particularly valid since Telfer would very much like to accommodate both men.

''We are also concerned with getting the best players on the field, but we are obviously playing a very strong side on Saturday and a Test the following week,'' he noted, though.

Indeed he acknowledged that the quality of this New South Wales side is such that it almost constitutes the first of three Test matches on successive Saturdays.

''I've seen quite a lot of New South Wales and compared with other provinces, even Queensland, they have real strength in depth,'' said Telfer. ''They are a formidable bunch. This is just like playing Australia in many ways.''

That none of Scotland's wingers have so far made much of an impression may, ultimately, help clarify the full-back situation for the Tests, but it is clear that, apart from a couple of positions where fitness is an issue, the side selected to meet New South Wales is as close to full strength as possible. Manager Arthur Hastie twice stressed that, for the first time, every player in the party had been available, but both Simon Holmes and Ian Jardine could well figure in the Test plans.

Telfer has previously indicated that his preference was to hold Holmes back until next Tuesday's meeting with the Australian Barbarians, after the London Scottish flanker failed to be fit in time for the meeting with New South Wales Country.

In doing so he also observed that Holmes has qualities otherwise unavailable to the tourists. That said, Gordon Simpson's remarkable rise through the ranks and his selection for a third time in eight days, makes it clear that he has made a powerful case for inclusion.

Jardine may now be fit for consideration after recovering from bouts of tendinitis in his knee and sinusitis, but he was one of the better performers against Fiji and his directness and physical presence could weigh in his favour. Admittedly Shepherd, who finds himself handed the goal-kicking duties for the first time at this crucial stage of the tour, is hardly a novice at Test level, but a great deal is being asked of him after only two matches in the No.12 jersey, for all his past experience there at club and district level.

''We are looking at Rowen at inside centre to get him more used to the position,'' Telfer admitted. The midfield area is the principle area of concern at this stage, though, so it was encouraging that Shepherd and those who will again be on either side of him on Saturday, Gregor Townsend and Cammy Murray, seemed to work well together, for the most part, in Bathurst.

As for the enigma that is Townsend, Telfer at times seems exasperated by his erratic play.

''That performance was obviously a bit different from the one in Fiji,'' said the coach. ''John Rutherford and Frank Hadden have worked very hard on Gregor and he did some things that no-one else can do. But then he mucks them up by passing straight to the opposition or whatever. We hope to make him more of a player that can get the back division flowing which sometimes is not his forte.'' Team:

G Metcalfe (Glasgow Hawks); C Joiner (Leicester), C Murray (Hawick), R Shepherd (Melrose), S Longstaff (Dundee HSFP); G Townsend (Brive), B Redpath (Melrose); D Hilton (Bath), G Bulloch (West of Scotland), M Proudfoot (Melrose), S Murray (Bedford), S Grimes (Watsonians), R Wainwright (Dundee HSFP), G Simpson (Kirkcaldy), E Peters (Bath). Replacements - D Lee (London Scottish), D Hodge, G Burns (both Watsonians), A Roxburgh (Kelso), S Campbell (Dundee HSFP), G McIlwham (Glasgow Hawks), K McKenzie (Stirling County).