JOHN Hardie has become the latest Scotland player to be ruled out of the rest of the Six Nations Championship after injuring a knee in the 29-13 win over Wales on Saturday. The Edinburgh forward lasted only 25 minutes before coming off, to be replaced by Hamish Watson.
“An MRI scan after the game confirmed the player damaged his medial collateral ligament and is expected to be out for several weeks,” Scottish Rugby announced yesterday. “He will take no further part in the championship.”
Scotland’s injury toll from the weekend was light compared to the loss in France two weeks earlier, which resulted in captain Greig Laidlaw and No 8 Josh Strauss sustaining injuries which ended their involvement in the tournament. Only one other player was mentioned in the medical bulletin issued by Murrayfield yesterday, and that was merely to confirm he is not in doubt for the next match, against England at Twickenham in 12 days.
“Wing Tommy Seymour sustained a blow to the ribs in the act of scoring but was fine to continue,” the statement concluded. “He is not considered a concern.”
Watson was outstanding when he came on, and was singled out for praise after the match by Alun Wyn Jones, the Wales captain. He also played from kick-off in Scotland’s first two games, so Vern Cotter will have no qualms about restoring him to the starting line-up.
However, the absence of Hardie and Strauss does leave the head coach short of back-row cover. Tim Swinson, usually a lock, has come off the bench to deputise in the back row recently and should again be in the squad for the Calcutta Cup clash. But Cotter will want more specialist cover for the back row, which could mean a recall for Rob Harley of Glasgow Warriors, David Denton of Bath or Magnus Bradbury of Edinburgh.
In the backs, Saracens winger Sean Maitland faces a fight to regain his place after missing out on the Wales game with a rib injury. He is expected to pass a fitness test, but his replacement, Tim Visser, had one of his finest games for Scotland, putting in a last-ditch try-saving tackle on scrum-half Rhys Webb and then touching down himself in a second half that saw the home side rack up 20 unanswered points.
Scotland’s wins over Ireland and Wales - achieved without props Alasdair Dickinson and Willem Nel, who were ruled out by injury before the tournament - will see them move up in the World Rugby rankings when they are released today. Eighth before the match, and in peril of dropping out of the first two groups of seeds for the next Rugby World Cup had they lost, the Scots will now go up to fifth. The Six Nations is the last tournament before the seedings for the 2019 event in Japan are finalised.
Scotland have not won at Twickenham since 1983, and Cotter will certainly not go overboard with optimistic predictions in the coming ways. He has been encouraged by the significant improvements made by his team over the past three weeks, but still feels they have yet to put a complete performance together.
“I think England haven't lost a game for a while so we would be very cautious about saying anything,” he said after Saturday’s match. “We’ll just prepare as best we can for that game.
“The first 40 against Ireland was very good. In this game, the second 40 was better than the first. If we can do the full 80 then I think we’ll probably be getting somewhere. That will be the challenge.
“It's nice to be able to adjust. In the French game we didn't adjust particularly well at times. This is another experience acquired, and hopefully it will help us move forward.
“The key, and it will be key on Monday, is making sure we ask good questions of ourselves and our performance. I've always said that comes from an honest appraisal and honest analysis.
“I think these players can play better. They can become better players and we can become better as a team. Our next challenge is to try to step that up. The key is to ask good questions about where we are and where we want to be.”
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