Scotland team to play All Blacks

[Will]

15 Hugo Southwell (Edinburgh)
14 Nikki Walker (Ospreys)
13 Marcus Di Rollo (Toulouse)
12 Andrew Henderson (Glasgow Warriors)
11 Simon Webster (Edinburgh)
10 Chris Paterson (Gloucester)
9 Chris Cusiter (Perpignan)*

1 Alasdair Dickinson (Gloucester)*
2 Scott Lawson (Sale Sharks)*
3 Craig Smith (Edinburgh)
4 Scott MacLeod (Llanelli Scarlets)
5 Scott Murray (unattached) CAPTAIN
6 Kelly Brown (Glasgow Warriors)*
8 Dave Callam (Edinburgh)*
7 John Barclay (Glasgow Warriors)*


Substitutes

16 Fergus Thomson (Glasgow Warriors)*
17 Gavin Kerr (Edinburgh)
18 James Hamilton (Leicester)
19 Allister Hogg (Edinburgh)*
20 Rory Lawson (Gloucester)*
21 Dan Parks (Glasgow Warriors)
22 Rob Dewey (Ulster)


"I utterly reject the notion that this is a second-string, weakened or reserve Scotland team given that it contains the best place-kicker in world rugby, two British Lions, one of whom is Scotland's most-capped player, two of our most-respected and exciting backs; arguably the player who made the biggest impact in the 2006 Autumn Tests and other players who have beaten South Africa, France, England Ireland and Wales in the international arena, combined with some fresh young talent." FRANK HADDEN


Thoughts?

Personally I do see the team as a second string team. No Lawson (though Rory is on the bench), no White, Dickonson and Barckley winning their first caps.... Not really what I had hoped for considering I'm going to the game on Sunday, and whilst not expecting to win against the All Blacks, it would have been nice to see a full strength Scotland team fight for it as best they could.

 

[shazbooger]

Shame to see a supposed top tier nation acknowledging they cannot win a game. We all expected this selection, but I would have liked to see Jason White and his pals front up to the AB's.

 

[rugbyfrench]

Scotland will play with their B team, they will loose heavily

 

[An Tarbh]

Joubert really should have had the cop on to realise that the jerseys clash, surely Scotland should have been told to wear white, it's ridiculous stuff.

 

[The TRUTH]

Terrible isn't it? the All Blacks should have just worn the black.

 

[edinburgh_gunner]

No - they should have been told by the IRB to have an away shirt that wouldn't clash with Scotland's shirt (given that we're the only team they'd need it against). They're the away team, so we should wear our national colours in our own capital city.

 

[An Tarbh]

well if things had been done properly, Scotland as the home team should have worn their away strip and there wouldn't have been a problem.

 

[edinburgh_gunner]

Quite frankly, Hadden is a joke. We are playing the best team in our own country, with fans being charged a bloody redicolous amount of money for a ticket for the game. Hadden's job, whatever the hell he might tell you, is to pick a Scottish side that will win. He has quite purposefully picked a 2nd string side - despite what he tells you - in order to save our best team for a team that, judging on world cup performances so far, we should beat. Not only has he conned the fans, he's done players like White, Hogg and Taylor a disservice. They want to be in these games, to play against the best. What good does a thrashing of our 2nd team do in the long run? Bugger all thats what.

Hadden, hang your head in shame.

It is tradition, not rule, that the home team wear the away shirt.

It's about bloody time New Zealand were told they were the same as everyone else.

Just as an after thought to my rant...


I am not having a go at the players, they are playing for their jersey to their best of their abillity. It's just that there are better players then them and the coach should have picked them.

 

[TRUE LEGND]

The away colours clashed with scotlands they shud of stuck with there original black jersys...ABs abit scratchie at times but did at times showd some class. Scotlands constant infringing is causing havok which in turn worked out for them... Congrats to the scots. I think all in all the race is on to see who will get the lowest score from the ABs

 

[Hoodo]

That was shocking, the amount of stupid errors, were due to the fact that we gave the ABS to much respect.

 

[charlievolano]

Awful game, uniforms were the bloody same, scrums were a horrible display by the scots, 40 points not much at the end of the day, it should have been 60-70 since the scots never got out of their 22.

Lots of ball handling errors from new zealand though. I dunno not a good game after all.

I agree if you play the ABs in ur home country you have to put a decent team no matter what.

 

[shtove]

Nice work out for the ABs scrum - that's the big difference between the 07 and 03 vintages.

Scotland will ****le you all game long, so not surprised the ABs were a bit "scratchy". Dan Parkes was ******** bricks.

 

[bruno]

Disappointing game, for the reasons most of you have already stated. Not at all interesting to watch. If "it's pretty simple beating the All Blacks", as Mr. Hadden said, then why not try it before a sold out stadium in your own country?

If Italy beats Scotland's 1st string now it would be a somewhat deserved punishment for Mr. Hadden (but not for his players, i'm sure).

It's things like these that turn me off from rugby a bit. Few nations are really ambitious, with Argentina beeing the most notable exception.

 

[Hoodo]

The thing is now is that we need Hadden to look at 3 things for the Italy game.


1) Scrums - That was a shocking display, and someone told me Ali Dickinson would do well.LOL.

2) Lineouts - We looked scrappy at something which is supposedly a strong area of Scotlands game traditionally.

3) Touch-finding - Not just Paterson, but Parks as well. Parks just booting it straight down Evans' throat in the middle of the park.

Paterson's confidence needs to be raised too, theres no way he'll be able to kick if he's got no confidence.

 

[Will]

well if things had been done properly, Scotland as the home team should have worn their away strip and there wouldn't have been a problem. [/b]

But it's not as simple as that. Scotland weren't officially the home team for this game. Despite the fact the game was at Murrayfield it was technically classed as a neutral ground as part of the WC. And so for that reason the teams flipped a coin to see who would be classed as the home team and who as the away team, and therefore who would get the home dressing room and be allowed to wear their home kit.

The real issue is that New Zealand should do something about their away kit. Yes we all know they like to wear black, but what's the point of having an away kit that's going to clash with any and every team you might have to wear it against????



And onto the game itself. It was awful. It really was. New Zealand were far from brilliant, but the main issue from my point of view was the absolutely shocking performance from Scotland. The amount of ball handling errors was just daft, and I can't quite get my head around the apparent tactic of constantly kicking the ball down the throat of the NZ full back time and time again.....

And I really do think Hadden has shot himself in the foot with this one. His decision to play a "B" team against the AB's means that after such a shocking performance he's going to have a job trying to patch it all together and rebuild morale for the game against Italy. I had fancied our chances against the Italians before, but after what I witnessed first hand yesterday I fear the worst.