McGeechan unfazed by USA forward power
Scotland coach Ian McGeechan identified the United States’ physical strength as his team’s biggest obstacle when the two sides meet in their World Cup Pool B match in Brisbane on Monday evening.
While many were surprised and impressed by the Eagles’ line-out and scrum effectiveness against Fiji on Wednesday, McGeechan was already well aware of the power the Americans can bring to bear and expects his team to be able to counter it effectively.
“They’re well organised, they’re big players, they’ve got a lot of experience and I thought they played Fiji very well, so it didn’t surprise me when you look at the results building up to the competition,” said McGeechan.
“I still want us to play to the strengths we’ve got because that’s when we are at our best,” he added, and backed locks Nathan Hines and Stuart Grimes, who have been named in the second row while Scott Murray has been left out of the 22.
“I think we’ve got a pretty strong line-out whichever combination we put together. One of the huge strengths we have at the moment are the options, particularly between the three of them.
“We’ve got a good line-out so I think it’s going to be a challenge for both teams.”
However, he defended the decision to exclude Murray, his most experienced lock forward, and go into the match with no specialist cover on the bench.
“We’ve got our own aims about what we want to do and how we want to do it and we’ve got options anyway which we can use,” he said.
A key element in countering the Americans’ physical prowess both in the line-outs and the scrums is the form of hooker Gordon Bulloch, who will captain Scotland.
“They went well, and we’ve obviously looked at that and sat down with the boys who have been calling the line-outs and decided what we can do to try and combat that,” said Bulloch.
“Dan Lyle is a huge influence for them at the back of the line-out, both on their ball and defending our ball, so I think if we can keep the ball away from him it would be ideal.
“We’ve got a good line-out ourselves and we’re not worried about that.”
McGeechan has made a total of eight changes to the side that struggled at times against Japan, split evenly between the backs and forwards.
Apart from Hines coming in for Murray, the other pack alterations are in the front row and on the blindside flank.
Bulloch takes over at hooker from Rob Russell, while Gavin Kerr will start at tighthead prop instead of Bruce Douglas.
Bristol’s Ross Beattie has been brought in as the starting blindside flanker in place of Sale’s Jason White.
McGeechan has opted for a new half-back combination, with Gregor Townsend starting at fly-half outside Michael Blair, while he has also brought Glenn Metcalfe in at fullback for Ben Hinshelwood and Simon Danielli onto the right wing for Kenny Logan.
The match is at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium and will be refereed by South Africa’s Jonathan Kaplan and kicks off at 10.30am Irish time on Monday.
Scotland: G Metcalfe; S Danielli, A Craig, A Henderson, C Paterson; G Townsend, M Blair; T Smith, G Bulloch, G Kerr, N Hines, S Grimes, R Beattie, J Petrie, S Taylor.
Replacements: R Russell, B Douglas, J White, M Leslie, B Redpath, B Hinshelwood, K Logan.
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