Injuries mar Scotland's Test preparations

Scotland’s development tour officially ended today when eight players were sent home and Matt Williams’ trimmed down Test squad began fierce preparations for the first Hopetoun Cup Test match against Australia on Sunday.

A high-intensity training session – in which new assistant coach Willie Anderson played a central and vocal part despite only officially being on tour as an observer – ended with prop Tom Smith icing his thigh and full-back Hugo Southwell requiring stitches to a head wound.

Confrontation and commitment to the cause is exactly the way Williams wants his players to build on Friday’s impressive victory over Samoa and prepare for the Melbourne Test.

There are key lessons Williams is anxious his players learn from the development squad’s “complacent” performance yesterday as they were humbled 33-15 by a shadow NSW Waratahs side.

He said: “I think that defeat was fantastic for the Test team. The guys just thought it was going to happen against the Waratahs and it didn’t.

“We had a good week last week, the young guys had a performance against NSW Country and the Test side played particularly well against Samoa.

“But that is history. You have to build on it, we have to have consistency. We have to produce a performance against the Wallabies that is worthy of the occasion.”

In a bid to keep pushing the boundaries, Williams – whose influence is clear in training as the players work on handling and passing skills which have visibly improved on tour – has been urging the Scotland players to look outside the circle.

He wants his players to start comparing themselves with the best in the world, not simply with their nearest rivals for a Test spot and statistics prove it has led to a distinct rise in standards.

The challenge now is to keep that improvement constant, including another step up against the Wallabies in Melbourne on Sunday.

Williams said: “Something I have been at us about is not to benchmark internally – we have got to compare ourselves to who we are playing against.

“We have got to compare ourselves against the Wallabies, England, France. Are we training to that intensity? What tackle counts, what performance standards have they set? We have to match that.

“It has been hard for the guys because we are behind and we tend to come out with negative results. But what they have done in the last six months is to take that as a challenge.

“Our work rate against Samoa was treble what we did during the Six Nations. Bruce Douglas made 15 tackles, Ally Hogg made 23 tackles which is almost double what we averaged in the Six Nations.

“It comes back to the concept of ’deserve to win’. There are the numbers to prove it. “You can show them – here are the numbers against England, here are the numbers against Samoa. The victory didn’t just happen by accident, the workrate right across the team is up.

“So if we put that performance in and more against the Wallabies we will go out there and be very competitive. And if we take our chances, who knows?”

Williams names his side to play Australia tomorrow with the only real question mark over Scotland’s full-back position, with Southwell favourite to replace the injured Chris Paterson and make his first Scotland start.

Today, Williams finalised the eight players who would leave the tour.

The hardest decision had been which of the impressive young locks to retain and Williams admitted all week the call would not be based on form as there was “not a hair between them“.

In the end, Newcastle’s Craig Hamilton remained in Sydney while Edinburgh’s Alastair Kellock was the player to miss out.

Scott MacLeod, the other option, was one of four injured players sent home after he suffered a calf strain in the warm-up before the Waratahs match.

Scotland’s tour has been beset by injuries and three of those called in as late replacements – prop Colin Noon, centre Matt Dey and scrum-half Rory Lawson - were today flying home.

The rest of the eight-man party was made up of injured players, with MacLeod joined on the flight by Bath winger Simon Danielli (back), Stephen Cranston (knee and ankle) and prop Allan Jacobson (shoulder).

The original plan had been for Williams to cut 10 players, but injury concerns over number eight Jon Petrie and flanker Scott Gray meant Andy Hall and Paul Dearlove – himself a late replacement for Cameron Mather – were retained in Australia.

Both are expected to be available to play on Sunday if selected, as are Smith and Southwell despite today’s bumps.