Ireland A v
Scottish A
NO member of the Scotland A line-up will be more anxious to impress the senior selectors than Stuart Reid, when Douglas Morgan's shadow squad take on their Irish Counterparts at Donnybrook tonight.
Reid, who has taken unpaid leave from the police in an effort to improve his rugby, was in the doldrums after missing out on selection after skippering one of the sides in last month's international trial at Myreside.
Now he is straining at the leash in the hope of using the encounter as the springboard to adding to his single Test cap against Western Samoa.
''It was hugely disappointing to be left out of everything in the wake of the trial,'' he agreed. ''But being picked to go to Dublin has given me an injection of confidence and I'm determined to make as big an impression as possible.''
Reid's former Boroughmuir team-mate Peter Wright admits he was caught between two stools of emotion this week when he received his A-team call-up.
On one hand, the World Cup and Lions prop was disappointed not to be involved with the senior squad at Lansdowne Road, on the other, he was thrilled to be given the chance to prove to the new selection panel that he is ready for a return to top-grade action.
''Effectively I have been demoted, I suppose, but on balance it's probably better for me to be guaranteed a game for the A-team rather than maybe or maybe not getting a taste of the action as a substitute in the Test side.''
Wright expects a typically tough battle against the Irish second stringers.
He said: ''No matter what level you face them at, they always get into your faces.''
The Scots will be led by Melrose scrum-half Bryan Redpath, who has taken over the captaincy from Duncan Hodge. Team:
Scotland A: H Gilmour (Heriot's FP and Edinburgh), S Longstaff (Dundee HSFP and Caledonia), G Shiel (Melrose and Border Reivers), J McLaren ( Stirling County and Caledonia), J Kerr (Watsonians and Caledonia), D Hodge (Watsonians and Edinburgh), B Redpath (Melrose and Border Reivers, capt), P Wright (West of Scotland and Border Reivers), K McKenzie (Stirling County and Caledonia), W Anderson (Kirkcaldy and Caledonia), S Murray (Bedford), A Lucking (Currie and Edinburgh), E Peters (Bath), S Reid (Boroughmuir and Edinburgh), B Pountney (Northampton).
Substitutes: D Officer (Currie and Caledonia), S McAusland (London Scottish), B Burns (Watsonians and Edinburgh), G Flockhart (Stirling County and Caledonia), G Perrett (West of Scotland and Glasgow), G McIlwham (Glasgow Hawks and Glasgow), S Brotherstone (Melrose and Border Reivers).
Ireland A: K Nowlan (St Mary's), J Topping (Ballymena), K Keane (Garryowen), M Lynch (Young Munster), D O'Malley (Moseley), P Burke (Bristol), S Bell (Dungannon), J Fitzpatrick (London Irish), A Clarke (Northampton, capt), G Walsh (Garryowen), M Galwey (Shannon), B Cusack (Bath), A Quinlan (Shannon), D Erskine, D O'Grady (both Sale).
Substitutes: J Cunningham (Ballymena), M Murphy (Galwegians), D O'Mahoney (Lansdowne), G Longwell (Ballymena), D Wallace (Garryowen), G Leslie (Dungannon), D Garaghty (Moseley).
Referee: N Williams (Wales).
qSCOTLAND Under-21s, fresh from their 41-15 triumph over Italy a fortnight ago, are unchanged for their meeting with the Irish at Clontarf.
Scotland still strive for their first victory over Ireland at this level.
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