Top-level rugby is a numbers game. The more genuine international players you have, the better your chances of rising up the world rankings. Which is why the tour that ends today could be the springboard for success. Scotland have uncovered players, such as Hugo Southwell, who have come in and earned the right to compete for places in the full international side while others, such as Andy Henderson and Ben Hinshelwood, who have been there or thereabouts for a few seasons without ever looking comfortable, have started to look international class players.
The last month has been about competition and giving the coaches options. For the past four years, the only positions where Scotland have had any depth of talent have been second row and scrum-half. This tour was more about uncovering extra options in other positions than about winning games.
After all, they arrived ranked ninth in the world, according to the International Rugby Board, and were facing the side ranked third. Rugby does not lend itself to that sort of shock result.
In a way, the desperate run of injuries actually helped Matt Williams, the coach, to achieve his goal. Remember that Southwell, like Craig Hamilton, who came on yesterday for his debut cap, is not even a regular with his club side Edinburgh and neither would have come anywhere near the international side if it had not been for the extravagant catalogue of injury.
Southwell, without being injured at all, has started fewer than half his club’s games this season, only eight of them at full-back, and probably travelled to Australia more as a utility back, able to cover both full back and wing. He would never have come close to the test team if both Chris Paterson and Robbie Kydd had not smashed their cheekbones and Simon Danielli had not been nursing a bad back.
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Nobody will pretend he is the finished article. He can kick the ball a mile and as a natural left footer gives the team different options down that side of the field, but in both tests showed his inexperience as he allowed kicks to be charged down, two of them setting up Australian counter-attacks from which they eventually scored. Composure will come. In terms of strength, power and direct running, there are echoes of Gavin Hastings in the way he uses his size to dominate the opposition and in the first Test in particular was a revelation in his defensive work, the scything tackle on Clyde Rathbone when the former South African playing for Australia seemed certain to set up a try, the highlight of a solid performance.
He has generally looked promising when he has featured for Edinburgh but admitted when the tour started that he had been pleasantly surprised to have made the party in the first place after a limited number of openings in his first season north of the Border. That said, he moved to Scotland with the express goal of trying to win caps, and the great incentive for him is that even when Paterson is back in action, who plays full-back is no longer an automatic choice.
Frank Hadden, the Edinburgh coach, is blameless, though, for failing to use Southwell more since he was being kept out of the team by Derrick Lee, who was in the Scotland squad at the time, winning caps against Italy and France. Hadden has a harder task ahead with Southwell having shown himself a contender, and, if nothing else, it keeps the pressure on Edinburgh to keep playing Paterson at fly-half.
Southwell is not the only leading contender for the find of the tour. Graeme Morrison was so dominant in a faltering performance against the NSW Waratahs that he won a place on the bench and came on in both tests for late caps. Even better, Sean Lamont, player of the season at Glasgow, won three starts by rights, just reward for his club form and early-tour performances.
Hamilton, too, is a relative unknown, having spent the last couple of seasons in and out of the Newcastle team where Mark Andrews and Stuart Grimes dominated selection in that role. Yet, he came through on tour to win a cap yesterday and lead the charge of the younger brigade in that department, the players who will take over when Grimes, Scott Murray and Nathan Hines bow out.
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Again, though, he would never have earned his chance had it not been for the disgraceful way that the Australian disciplinary authorities made sure that Grimes was not available for yesterday’s game, the injury that kept Hines out of the tour altogether, and the run of injuries that made sure there was no possibility of moving Jason White from the back row.
There were two more huge benefits from the tour. One was the evident progress of the youngsters in their first season. Chris Cusiter took his try yesterday with aplomb and has impressed with his sniping runs and control behind the forwards. Bryan Redpath, his predecessor, rightly observed that he tends to take a step before passing but if he can rid himself of that habit, he is there for years to come.
As is Allister Hogg. The problem for Williams now is how does he handle the back row next season when Simon Taylor is fit.
The second tour positive is the rediscovery of players who had drifted out of the international limelight, most notably Donnie Macfadyen at flanker, and Craig Smith, who has always been brilliant in the loose but now it looks as though the tour has taught him how to scrummage.
What is most encouraging is that Scotland have started to play to a style and a pattern with which they are comfortable. While they still miss too many tackles, their defensive system copes on the whole, and yesterday there were definite signs that the attacking play is starting to develop. The difficulty in turning line breaks into scores is still there but that has been a problem for five years.
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So they head home today having beaten Samoa, who are roughly on their level — that alone is an advance on the Six Nations — having shown more attacking options than at any time since South Africa last summer, having blooded a number of young players and with others having mastered the art of playing at this level. Not a bad month’s work.