Lock, stock and two big decisions for Hadden

FRANK HADDEN admits his second-row selection dilemma for Scotland’s Six Nations clash with Ireland has one major advantage — it will keep the opposition guessing.

Head coach Hadden delayed naming his starting XV for Saturday’s penultimate game at Murrayfield, with four locks competing for two berths.

Jason White and Alastair Kellock — who both started the win against Italy just over a week ago — are the men in possession of the jerseys.

But it says everything about how highly Hadden rates Jim Hamilton and Nathan Hines — his first-choice pairing for the autumn internationals — that he was prepared to give them extra time to prove their fitness for this weekend’s game.

Hamilton has shaken off the shoulder problem he sustained against France last month, while Hines has made a quicker than expected recovery from the knee injury which has so far kept him out of the tournament.

Hadden said yesterday: “We’re not apologetic about not naming the team today. It’s not as if it’s subterfuge or trying to pull the wool over anybody’s eyes, but I’m not too unhappy that Ireland don’t know what the second row’s going to be.

“We are putting Nathan Hines and Jim Hamilton through a fairly strenuous couple of days. We’re hoping to make the decision tonight as the result of what we see but we may have to wait for a doctor’s opinion. We were happy with what Jason and Al Kellock did against Italy and we think we would be happy for them to play against Ireland.

“But we’ve got two very experienced international players who are back in the mix and we need to have a closer look at them before we consider them available for selection.”

Hadden is prepared to field both Hamilton and Hines, even if that doubles the risk of one of them breaking down.

He added: “It’s a tough decision but we never shy away from the tough decisions. There are always tough selection decisions to be made.

“We have got a little bit of depth; we’ve got guys pushing each other for selection, and I’ve always said until we’ve got guys pushing each other, they’re not going to raise their own bar.

“And until the players raise the bar, the team won’t be able to raise the bar.”

The other major talking point was Hadden’s decision to recall record points-scorer Chris Paterson, who was controversially left on the bench for the opening three games of the championship.

Paterson, who will extend his Scotland caps record to 94 on Saturday, comes in for Edinburgh team-mate Hugo Southwell.

Hadden said: “It’s been a tough call every week on Chris and Hugo, and it will be next week, I imagine.”