Scots prepare to play ball against Argentina

Scotland have again omitted their tournament captain Alastair Kellock in picking a team to challenge Argentina both up front and out wide in their Pool B Rugby World Cup 2011 match at Wellington Regional Stadium on Sunday.

Scotland have gone for a mixture of power and pace to try to run and stun Argentina in a third pool match that could decide the quarter-finalists in the pool.

“We really want to play ball in hand. That’s something that’s the key for us. We really want to move the ball around," coach Andy Robinson said.

Kellock, who played the opening match of the tournament against Romania but was left out against the strong scrummaging Georgians, hands his No.5 jersey to Jim Hamilton and the captaincy to scrum half Rory Lawson.

With their best scrummaging prop Euan Murray unavailable to play on a Sunday for religious reasons, Robinson said Scotland needed additional weight behind tighthead prop Geoff Cross and Hamilton was best equipped to provide that, with athletic 2.07m Richie Gray as his second row partner.

“Euan is not playing in this game, so there’s some real weight (needed) behind Geoff Cross on that right hand side and that’s what Jim Hamilton gives," Robinson told a press conference at Wellington's Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club on Thursday.

"We’re putting together a second row to work with Jim that could give us the ability to play quickly. I believe that Richie Gray, who is an outstanding second row forward, has that ability to work for us in the open play.”

Backline changes

Robinson also rang the changes in the backline to support his strategy of a fast, attacking game, blended with judicious kicking.

Fly half Dan Parks, whose goal-kicking game won the match for Scotland against Georgia in atrocious conditions in Invercargill, has been replaced by 23-year-old Ruaridh Jackson to promote a more ball-in-hand game.

"He (Jackson) has a very good ability to go to the line and challenge defences and we believe going into this game it's important to us to play with the ball in hand as well as have the balanced game of kicking," said Robinson.

"We want to bring our dangerous runners in terms of (wings) Max Evans, Sean Lamont, (full back) Chris Paterson, (inside centre) Graham Morrison, into the game."

Robinson suggested those who had written off Scotland as a limited, kicking side had not been paying attention, although he conceded their ambition had not always been matched by performance.

“It’s something (a running game) we have tried to do. If you watch our games you’ll see that we’ve done that (in the past) but what’s happened over the past couple of years is that our execution hasn’t been good enough.

“They (Argentina) are strong around the breakdowns and their forwards and therefore our ability to move their forward pack around will be important for us.

“That’s our plan, that’s what we want to do in the game, but obviously when it comes to the pressure of the game, we’ve got to be able to execute that."

England and Scotland are currently level on nine competition points, with England just ahead on percentages, and Argentina third on six points. Scotland play England in their final pool match, while Argentina are up against Georgia.