The new Scotland coach has challenged the country's second string to prove they can become international winners and promised that if they do, selection for the senior side will follow.
Andy Robinson had been earmarked to take the team to the IRB Nations Cup before the top job became vacant, but now that he is the coach, the players who fly to Romania today will be the first to get a shot at impressing him.
“In the end it is about the next game and how you perform,” Robinson said. “It is a great opportunity for the players to put their hands up at the start. I have spoken before about the need to win back-to-back matches, it is about performing well and consistency of performance. The range of performance being at that high end all the time as opposed to ranging between brilliant and average.”
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Though the tournament is being played under a format in which the teams play in a league structure but face only three of the other five sides, if Scotland do win all three matches, that would almost certainly be enough to see them follow the Emerging Springboks as winners and usher in the Robinson era with a trophy.
The coach had to make a last-minute tweak to his squad yesterday when Simon Danielli, the Ulster wing, dropped out and John Houston, the Edinburgh utility back, replaced him, but Robinson was not letting the disruption worry him. “I already had spoken about how important this trip is to get Scotland playing well and winning, it is the ideal tool for that,” he said. “Players need to recognise that if they put the performances in for Scotland A, then they will go on to play for Scotland.
“My record since I got involved with Scotland A is that during the last year guys who have played for the team - Rory Lawson, Phil Godman, Ben Cairns, Thom Evans, Graeme Morrison - all went on to play for Scotland that year. This is the first opportunity for these players to put their hands up. I have some idea of the quality of players in Scotland and I am looking to some of the guys who are going on the tour to reaffirm what I think of their ability and for some of the younger players to say, I can deliver at this level'.”
Robinson believes that the three matches the team will play will provide them with contrasting challenges in each. Russia will be big, physical and confrontational in the first match on Friday, Uruguay will test Scotland A's set-pieces, particularly the scrum, and France A will be full of flair and running skills.
Planning for this tour started when Frank Hadden was still Scotland coach, but even when the international side had nothing to do with him, Robinson thought that the tournament would be a vital tool for developing players who have not had enough exposure to international rugby. Now that he is in charge himself, it has only grown in importance, as the fringe players and the next generation of stars get a direct chance to impress the man who matters.
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Not, as Houston pointed out, that it will be easy. “He [Robinson] has a great understanding of the game,” he said. “From No1 to No15 he seems to know every position inside out. He may be a forward specialist but you will often see him pull a back to one side and chat to them about something he has picked up. There is certainly no hiding place for anybody.”