From nights under canvas in the Pyrenees to foraging for food – lobster included – in the more familiar surroundings of St Andrews, Scotland have spent the past two months bonding and putting together their World Cup squad but the coach, Vern Cotter, admits it is unlikely to be until sometime on Monday that he will have all 31 pieces of the jigsaw.
Long after the dust had settled on a comfortable – probably too comfortable – record-breaking win over Italy Cotter confirmed there were injury issues, not from the day but long-standing problems, and that he was even unsure of the breakdown between forwards and backs – an 18:13 ratio or the more conventional 17:14, possibly with only three locks.
That would be bad news for the Saracen Jim Hamilton, for instance, after 63 caps but at the core of Cotters’ problem is the fitness of Alex Dunbar and whether to wait for the Glasgow centre, who ruptured the cruciate ligament in his left knee during training for the Six Nations and has not played since.
Murrayfield paid for Dunbar to do part of his rehabilitation in the Philadelphia clinic of Bill Knowles, who helped Tiger Woods, Jonny Wilkinson and Wayne Rooney, but Cotter was questioning team medics on Sunday as to whether the 25-year-old would be ready to face Japan in Scotland’s opening World Cup fixture, or whether the comeback has to wait even longer.
Elsewhere the news of Scotland’s injured was slightly better. Stuart Hogg, the bolted on full-back, played for 69 minutes after tweaking an ankle in the warm-up and the word in Edinburgh at the weekend was that Sean Maitland, the Kiwi wing on his way to London Irish, could have played against Italy if pushed.
If correct, that helps Cotter with the considerable problem of who might understudy his British Lion full-back; however the coach has more delicate issues concerning at least one of the expensive imports who litter his training squad.
One of the success stories from Saturday was the return of John Barclay, a flanker with 44 caps but not the sniff of a Scotland appearance for the past 18 months. On Saturday, alongside David Denton, he was all over the breakdown for 61 minutes, which should raise questions about John Hardie, the latest Kiwi to join Cotter’s squad.
The former Highlander is as yet unregistered at club level and, should Cotter find the flanker surplus to requirements, he would not be the first Scottish coach to waste an air fare from the southern hemisphere. And, given the reaction when Hugh Blake was added to the Six Nations squad, and the huge cheer Barclay received when he was replaced by another Kiwi, Blair Cowan, on Saturday the coach might save himself some explaining.
He already seems likely to name a couple of South African imports, one of whom is yet to qualify under the three-year residency rule that is soon to be reviewed by World Rugby. Josh Strauss, the flanker/lock at the heart of Glasgow’s rise to Pro12 champions, does not qualify until the day after the World Cup kicks off and four days before Scotland play Japan.
Strauss, from the Western Cape, was in Nova Scotia, playing for Glasgow against Canada and getting some game time at the weekend, while WP Nel, from Loeriesfontein, was making his home debut at Murrayfield in what increasingly looks like Scotland’s first-choice front row.
However, one issue for Cotter to decide before he passes his 31 to the World Cup organisers on Monday and then announces Tuesday afternoon, is the remaining wing slot, which was so keenly contested by Sean Lamont and Tim Visser that they ended with two tries apiece, although Visser will have been marked down for failing to control the ball when Italy got the try they barely deserved.
Scotland Hogg (Jackson, 69); Lamont, Bennett, Horne (Scott, 51), Visser; Russell, Laidlaw (Pyrgos, 6); Dickinson (Reid, 63), Ford (McInally, 56), Nel (Welsh, 63), Gray, Gilchrist (Harley, 61), Wilson, Barclay (Cowan, 61), Denton.
Tries Lamont 2, Barclay, Visser 2, Bennett. Cons Laidlaw 2, Russell. Pens Laidlaw 4.
Italy McLean; Esposito (Masi, 51) Campagnaro, Morisi, Sarto; Allan, Palazzani; Agüero (Rizzo, 33), Ghiraldini (Manici, 65), Catrogiovanni (Christolini, 55), Fuser (Geldenhuys, 55), Furno, Zanni, Minto (Bergamasco, 65), Vunisa.
Try Campagnaro. Con Allan.
Sin-bin Minto 38, Risso 68.
Referee Romain Poite (France).
Attendance 43,831.