Kerr turns attention to USA clash

Scotland’s players have moved on from the disappointing performance against Japan and are focused on their up-coming encounter with the USA, says prop Gavin Kerr.

A full squad meeting yesterday dealt with the many shortcomings exposed in the 32-11 win in Townsville and attention has now turned to remedying those areas before taking on the Eagles in Brisbane on Monday.

“The lads were disappointed with the way some of the things went but there were some good things that came out of the game,” said Kerr, who played a brief role in the match as a late substitute.

“We’re going to pick up on the things that went badly,” he told the Press Association.

“We had a chat yesterday about the things we had to work on, but other than that we don’t want to get ourselves down.

“We got the win and it wasn’t great, but we’ve got to move on.”

That means putting away analysis of failures and switching to contemplation of what is needed to deal with the far different challenge posed by the big American pack.

“We’ve watched the games from when England played them in the summer, but there are probably lots of things that have changed since then,” said Kerr.

“We’re going to watch the game (Fiji v USA) tonight and have a look at how they are playing now.

“They will be strong up front so that’s something we are going to have to look at.

“As long as we prepare well this weekend I don’t think there will be anything to worry about.”

The Scottish squad are enjoying their last few days in the resort town of Caloundra, an hour north of Brisbane, before they move to a city hotel on Friday.

They have decided to shift their base because a motorcycle club known as the Bandidos have booked into the same resort for their annual convention.

Members of the club have already begun arriving in the town.

Brisbane newspaper The Courier-Mail ran the story under a headline describing the Scots as ’Fainthearts’, but Scottish team management have decided not to comment on the decision further.

However, spirits in the camp are high as the weather has improved and flanker Martin Leslie is helping by running a regular barbecue.

Number eight Simon Taylor’s back injury, which occurred during training on Monday afternoon, is still being assessed, but the player himself is understood to be confident that it is not a serious problem.