MAKING wholesale changes is always tricky for a coach, especially one such as Frank Hadden, the man in charge of Scotland, who prides himself on his continuity of selection. It is also easy to get carried away by the numbers game.
He may have switched six players for the international against South Africa tomorrow, but all the players he is bringing in have played for him regularly, have featured in recent match 22s and know the system. It is not a slash and burn policy, more a quiet shuffle of his pieces.
For Gordon Ross, the Leeds fly half, it is another chance to make his case for the starting spot on a regular basis. A year ago he was Hadden’s preferred choice, missing out because of injury, but by the autumn internationals and Six Nations he had dropped below Dan Parks in the pecking order with some uncharacteristically edgy performances for his club.
He did come on in every spring game, though, and had won back his starting spot by the final match, the game away to Italy. He lost the berth again for the Barbarians and the first international last weekend, but has fought back again to reclaim the place, perhaps helped by having delivered the scoring pass for Scotland’s only try in the 36-16 defeat.
“You know that at this level any coach wants continuity in his team,” he said. “I hope I can use this chance to put my case for a few more starts. In the past I have not been at my best when I have started games. I seem to have got into the habit of coming off the bench, but the challenge tomorrow is to produce that form from the start. There is a good, healthy competition between Dan (Parks) and me and we are both aware of Phil Godman having a good A team competition in Canada.”
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Fly half is one of those roles where a run of games is essential before the best of a player can be seen, but at least Ross goes into this one knowing that there is no specialist replacement on the bench, so that the position is his for the full 80 minutes unless he is injured. Hadden will turn to Chris Paterson to fill the berth only as a last resort.
There is a degree of comfort in knowing that you are not going to be pulled from the pitch, that you will have time to make up for any mistakes, and Ross reckons he has a trick or two up his sleeve — though the presence of Andre Snyman, his club colleague at Leeds, in the opposition ranks means that the Springboks will be well clued up on his likes and dislikes. “The key thing is to try to keep them guessing,” he says.
“Lie deep sometimes, flat others, make them wonder what we are planning, that we can give ourselves a bit of space to run.
“Their defence is very aggressive, so we have to keep them thinking. It is vital that we get the kicking game right. We have to use that to put pressure on them and make sure they are on the back foot.
“During the Six Nations we did kick pretty well and that was one reason we did as well as we did. It was not so good last week. When we tried to find space they covered it well.”
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The reason that Hadden has had the confidence to leave him without specialist back-up is that, in a tactical role such as fly half, the physical demands are a lot less than in the pack battle, where the Scots are set to be outweighed by about six stone.
Up against that sort of size disparity, it is a case of telling the forwards to go out, give everything they have for as long as they can in the knowledge that if they do start to buckle, there are five colleagues on the bench waiting a chance to have a go.
It is, Craig Smith, the tighthead prop, says, a considerable comfort when you look at an opponent such as Os du Randt.
“He is a big, big man, taller and heavier than me,” he said. “But it is all about technique. Every person in the world scrums differently, so you have to work out what works for you and what works against them. He is a huge guy and known as a tough scrummager — that is what he is in the team to do. I back myself to nullify that.”