RUGBY/Six Nations Championship: As expected, Ireland will face up to an experienced and high-quality Scottish pack containing four Lions following Ian McGeechan's announcement of his team for Sunday's opening encounter in Murrayfield.
The one contentious issue had been at openside, following the embittered retirement of Budge Pountney; in the event, McGeechan has opted for the Sydney-born, Newcastle openside Andy Mower.
There was no carbon copy replacement for Pountney, perhaps the supreme spoiler of European opensides, but Mower brings more speed and dynamism to the back row, if less proven effectiveness at the breakdown.
Another option was to move one of their kilted Kiwis, Martin Leslie, from blindside to openside, where he has been playing for Edinburgh lately with some effectiveness. The Scottish coach admitted he gave it some consideration, but reasoned: "The decisive factor was pace. Ireland are a pretty quick team and when we've played our best rugby we've been a pretty quick team as well."
If the pace of the Irish back row had been a factor in the choice of Mower, McGeechan rejected any suggestion that David Humphreys' elevation to the Irish team instead of the injured Ronan O'Gara had affected the Scottish selection.
"They (Humphreys and O'Gara) have both played there regularly and Ireland have a pretty good shape to what they do regardless of who they play there. We were more concerned with trying to balance what we wanted to do."
That said, Mower's pace will be employed to "get at" Humphreys.
"Defence is a pretty big part of the game and I'll be looking to make as many tackles as possible," said Mower, at which point it was put to him that Humphreys mightn't share his zeal for tackling. "There aren't many stand-offs who do, apart from Jonny Wilkinson," he replied.
One of the more eye-catching selections, and something of a step back in time, is the recall to arms of veteran winger Kenny Logan, in place of Nicky Walker, who played in all three autumn Tests and scored a dubious try in the win over South Africa, but has been re-routed to the Scottish under-21s this week.
This may or may not be a reflection of a relative dearth of options out wide for the Scots.
"Kenny Logan is on form, over the last four to six weeks particularly," commented McGeechan. "He would be the first to admit that he was a bit hit-and-miss earlier in the season, but he's benefiting from a very professional regime at Wasps with Warren Gatland."
There had also been some speculation about McGeechan's options at outhalf: Gordon Ross, the former Edinburgh player who has benefited from a move to Leeds this season and impressed with his strategic kicking and tactical approach in the wins over Romania and South Africa; Brendan Laney, who has been in a rich and prolific vein of form for Edinburgh, or McGeechan's old favourite, Gregor Townsend.
In the event he went with the sensible option of Ross, with Laney at inside centre, which suggests the Scots aren't going to try anything too fancy come Sunday.
"There was a temptation to play Brendan at 10. There's no doubt as to how well he's been playing, but in the end we decided to keep him at 12, but Gordon kicked exceptionally well in the autumn, he's been pretty consistent with Leeds and we've got to be fair to the players."
Former rugby league player Iestyn Harris was named at outhalf in place of the injured Stephen Jones in the Wales side to meet Italy in Rome on Saturday.
The team Wales coach Steve Hansen announced in Cardiff before they flew out to Rome on Thursday has six changes, four because of injuries, from the side beaten 43-17 by New Zealand in their last Test match at the Millennium Stadium in November.
Hansen dropped lock Gareth Llewellyn, a veteran of 71 tests, replacing him with Northampton's Steve Williams in a pack with two other changes.
Promising youngster Michael Owen comes in at blindside flanker, where Dafydd Jones appeared against the All Blacks, and Mefin Davies replaces the injured Robin McBryde at hooker.
Italy coach John Kirwan, as expected, named flanker Mauro Bergamasco on the wing for Saturday's match. The 23-year-old Benetton Treviso player was moved to the wing for Italy's win over an All-Star XV in Treviso last Saturday, and Kirwan said Bergamasco had the potential to become the "Italian Jonah Lomu".
SCOTLAND: G Metcalfe (Glasgow); K Logan (Wasps), A Craig (Orrell), B Laney (Edinburgh), C Paterson (Edinburgh); G Ross (Leeds), B Redpath (Sale, capt); T Smith (Northampton), G Bulloch (Glasgow Rugby), B Douglas (Borders) S Grimes (Newcastle), S Murray (Edinburgh), M Leslie (Edinburgh), S Taylor (Edinburgh), A Mower (Newcastle). Replacements: S Scott (Borders), G Kerr (Leeds), N Hines (Edinburgh), R Beattie (Bristol), M Blair (Edinburgh), G Townsend (Borders), K Utterson (Borders).
WALES: R Williams; M Jones, T Shanklin, L Davies, G Thomas; I Harris, D Peel; I Thomas, M Davies, B Evans, R Sidoli, S Williams, M Owen, M Williams, C Charvis (capt). Replacements: G Williams, G Jenkins, D Jones, G Thomas, G Cooper, C Sweeney, M Watkins.
ITALY: P Vaccari; M Bergamasco, C Stoica, G Raineri, D Dallan; D Dominguez, A Troncon; G De Carli, C Festuccia, R Martinez, C Bezzi, M Bortolami, A De Rossi, A Persico, M Phillips. Replacements: A Moretti, S Perugini, M Giacheri, S Palmer, J M Queirolo, R Pez, M Bergamasco.
