Scotland yesterday turned to the A team to get them out of trouble by selecting Stuart Reid as captain of a side dominated by those with whom he shared a Grand Slam triumph earlier this year for tomorrow's meeting with Victoria in Melbourne.
Reid has made something of a habit of defying the odds when leading teams this season. He led an Edinburgh side that had been competing in the European Conference, while their rivals had faced the best in Europe in the Heineken Cup, to victory in the district championship.
Then came that even greater success as the A team provided an answer to the widely held view that Scotland lacks strength in depth at international level, when they beat all their Five Nations rivals, culminating in an epic victory over the English. ''Ten of these guys played in the A team and they obviously have the commitment Dougie Morgan instilled in them and the kind of mental hardness that we need,'' said Reid, paying tribute to A team manager and former senior squad coach Morgan.
''If the team can win for Scotland and the boys play well then we can go from strength to strength,'' Reid went on. ''The players who weren't in Fiji felt the effects of that result as well, but everyone is up for the game and keen to impress now that they have been given a carrot. The main thing in our minds will be to get a victory and get the tour on its way, but at the back of our minds is that a good performance can get us into the Test team.''
On a personal level, Reid clearly faces a tough battle to achieve that with a string of top quality back-row men competing for places. Tour skipper Rob Wainwright is, by definition, unlikely to be displaced; Eric Peters was Scotland's outstanding performer against the Fijians; and both Adam Roxburgh and Simon Holmes, the main contenders for the open-side flanker's job, make this trip on the back of excellent reviews during the Five Nations campaign.
He is, however, confident that he can fight his way through. ''Being captain of this side is hopefully another step up the ladder,'' he said. ''It is obviously an honour to lead this team. But I didn't fly 12,000 miles to captain a B team. Like everyone else in this side I want to be in the top team.''
Holmes was the only tourist not considered for tomorrow's match because of a sprained ankle suffered during the London Scottish play-off win over Bristol on Saturday, which earned the exiles a place in next season's Allied Dunbar Premiership, but delayed his arrival in Australia.
Others who didn't train due to minor knocks were Derrick Lee, who is fit enough to be on the bench tomorrow, Bryan Redpath, Ian Jardine and Hugh Gilmour.
Craig Joiner picked up a shoulder injury tackling Eric Peters and required treatment during what was an intense session at Melbourne's Olympic Park, but is included.
Meanwhile, Victoria have named two Fijians, former international prop Ile Naituku and Albert Bolavatonoki, as well as 1990 Wallaby tourist John Ross and ex-Queensland Super 12 prop Luke Oxenham, in their side. Teams:
Scotland - G Metcalfe (Glasgow Hawks); A Bulloch )West of Scotland), D Officer (Harlequins), R Shepherd (Melrose), C Joiner (Leicester); D Hodge, G Burns (both Watsonians); P Wright (West of Scotland), S Brotherstone (Melrose), M Stewart (Northampton), R Metcalfe (Newcastle Falcons), S Grimes, C Mather (both Watsonians), G Simpson (Kirkcaldy), S Reid (Boroughmuir). Replacements: D Lee (London Scottish), J Mayer (Watsonians), I Fairley (Kelso), E Peters (Bath), S Campbell (Dundee HSFP), D Hilton (Bath), K McKenzie (Stirling County)
Victoria - A Pilli; A Bolavatonoki, M Nasilio, J Goodman, D Snaddon; J Berger, S Brown; L Oxenham, D Thompson, I Naituku, B Parsons, S Decker, C Frater, J Ross, R Pale.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article