New Look Scotland
Scotland will field nine uncapped players against a near full-strength Queensland Reds in their Australian rugby tour opener in Brisbane on Saturday.
Scotland will field nine uncapped players against a near full-strength Queensland Reds in their Australian rugby tour opener in Brisbane on Saturday.
Robbie Kydd, Sean Lamont, Graeme Morrison, Hugo Southwell, Craig
Hamilton
and Alastair Kellock will make their senior international debuts in
the run-on
side.
And fellow debutants Stephen Cranston, Gareth Morton and Scott
MacLeod have
been named on the replacements’ bench.
The Scottish team, prepared by former NSW coach Matt Williams,
also
includes two Australian-raised players in centre Ben Hinshelwood and
hooker
Rob Russell.
“We’re here to win,” coach Matt Williams said.
“It’s a long process
but these players are well on their way.
I’m sure Queensland will be putting out their strongest team
and we’re
ready to face that.”
The Scots, who play two Tests against the Wallabies in Melbourne
and Sydney
next month, failed to win a match in this year’s Six Nations.
Their last Test win was in a World Cup pool match last year
against Fiji,
and that was only achieved in the final minutes.
The Wallabies beat them 33-16 in a Brisbane quarter-final.
The Reds finished their Super 12 campaign with three successive
victories
and their Wallabies squad contingent of Chris Latham, Elton Flatley,
Wendell
Sailor, John Roe and Nathan Sharpe are all available.
Scotland:
Robbie Kydd; Sean Lamont, Ben Hinshelwood, Graeme Morrison, Hugo
Southwell;
Gordon Ross, Mike Blair (captain); Donnie Macfadyen, Jon Petrie, Andy
Hall;
Alastair Kellock, Craig Hamilton; Allan Jacobsen, Rob Russell, Craig
Smith.
Replacements: Steve Scott, Joel Brannigan, Scott MacLeod, Cameron
Mather,
Graeme Beveridge, Stephen Cranston, Gareth Morton.
AFP – 2004.