THE BIG PUSH Scots pack bulges with talent

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33803, 27 March 1975, Page 36

THE BIG PUSH Scots pack bulges with talent

(By

J. K. BROOKS)

Canterbury has a superb record of success against overseas Rugby teams, but tradition will count for very little when the home side comes up against the raw-boned Scots at Lancaster Park on May ,31.

Only a titanic effort by the forwards will give Canterbury a chance. The Scottish side is packed with experience and its tight forwards might provide Canterbury with its most sobering experience.

The props. lan MeLauchlan and Sandy Carmichael, and the locks, Alistair McHarg and Gordon Brown, have together put strength into Scotland’s pack for the last seven seasons. They are renowned for their skill at the scrummage, and Brown and McHarg are probably the best line-out jumpers in Britain.

Duncan Madsen is a shrewd and nimble hooker, and Wilson Lauder, who plays his club football for the Welsh club, Neath, is a loose forward in the mould of Canterbury’s John Phillips.

The backs, too, are a seasoned lot, and it is significant that the Scottish selectors have recalled the balding tactician, Colin Telfer, as a flyhalf, and the strapping centre, John Frame, who won the first of his 23 international caps against Brian Lochore’s All Blacks in 1967. Star backs With them will be Jim Renwick. Frame’s long-term midfield partner from Hawick, and Willie Steele, a splendid wing with a jazzy side-step. Two players who made

their debuts for Scotland against the All Black side i led by lan Kirkpatrick in 1972 I are likely to be the stars of i the tour. Thev are lan Mc- ; Geechan, the Yorkshirej domiciled fly-half or centre, and Andy Irvine, the full-back ' whose spectacular progress has been a big talking point jin British Rugby.

Irvine is a footballer with i match-winning gifts. He is a I fast and deceptive runner and i a brilliant goal-kicker. He was the top-scorer for the Lions in South Africa last year and although he could not displace the dynamic Welshman, John Williams, from the test full-back position, his efforts were so good that he was played as a wing in the third and fourth internationals. New players To supplement these players. Scotland will have several dashing newcomers, notably Mike Biggar, a clever flanker who captains London Scottish, and David Bell, a centre who made a confident entry into international Rugby last month. Scotland failed in its bid to win the Five Nations’ championship — but it was tantalisingly close to success It cleared its biggest hurdles by beating Wales and Ireland, but lost to England and France, each by a point.

Wales was an outstandingly successful team in this year’s Five Nations’ championships — and yet it was against Scotland that Wales failed to achieve enough clean possession to produce the entertaining back-play on which much of its success was built. Hard game The Scots also overpowered Ireland, and were unlucky to lose, 10-9, against France in the mud at Paris. There was also only a point in the other loss — beaten 7-6 at Twickenham by a hapless England side with nothing to lose and plenty to gain at the end of a dismal season. Canterbury, therefore, can expect an exceedingly hard match — especially as the fixture will command an early place on its fixture list. The players chosen for the tour are:— Forwards. — McLauchlan (captain), Carmichael, Madsen. Brown, McHarg, Lauder, Biggar, I. A. Barnes, C. D. Fisher, D. G. Leslie, G. Y. Mackie, N. E. K. Pender, A. J. Tomes.

Backs—lrvine, McGeechan, Steele, Frame, Renwick, Telfer, Bell, G. Birkett, L. G. Dick, B. H. Hay, A. J. M. Lawson, D. W. Morgan.